We can all see the Eagles aren’t getting the job done. Head coach Chip Kelly still believes he’s employing the right scheme and he’s got the right players, trying to execute it. Of course he’s the guy who thought up the scheme and he’s also the same guy who picked all the players. Right now it isn’t working, yet Kelly refuses to second-guess himself.
Clearly defenses have a good idea about what play is getting ready to be run against them, when the Eagles come to the line of scrimmage. DeMarco Murray also doesn’t seem to fit this scheme when y0u ask him to run the ball laterally to get to the hole. He is a North and South runner and you have him going laterally. Surely something is wrong when you have a guy, who ran for over 1800 yards last year having run for less than 50 yards in 3 games in the next season.
“We know we have the right players here”, Kelly said. “It’s a play here or a play there. We lost a game by a two and we lost a game by three and we lost another game by 10. We’ve lost three games by 15 points. You hit two kicks and we’re sitting here 3-1 and everyone’s happy.”
The Eagles running game is pathetic. Defenses are able to get penetration into backfield on nearly every play. Murray took off on a 30 yard run in the first quarter on Sunday, but wound up with a grand total of eight carries for 36 yards for the entire game. The Redskins held him to 6 yards on seven carries after that first run. Ryan Mathews wasn’t much better with five carries for 20 yards.
“You don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, ‘OK, we’re going to change our offense, change our defense, change everything we’re doing with our approach,'” Kelly said. “We just need to settle down, take a deep breath, and when we have an opportunity to make a play, make a play.”
The running attack is horrible. Without a running game, the Eagles are in trouble because I don’t see Sam Bradford staying healthy behind their beat up offensive line.
Now their offensive line is getting hit with the injury bug and they don’t have the depth to withstand it. Left tackle Jason Peters went down with a quad injury and may not be able to play this week. Right tackle Lane Johnson sprained the MCL in one of his legs according to Philly.com and he may not play this week.
The game against the New Orleans Saints this week is a must win. They’re already in the basement of the NFC East with a 1-3 record. They might have to play the Saints without both of their starting offensive tackles. Their offensive line has been horrible with both of those guys in there. The line hasn’t been able to run block, now without their starting tackles, they won’t one able to pass block.
Fire sale –
offer the contenders the 30 year olds from the offense for trade ( Sproles, Celek and Peters ) The Colts Ryan Grigson might offer a second for Peters. And the Redskins might offer a 4th for Celek.
No one is Offering a 2nd Round Pick for a $10 Million a Year Player for the next 2 Seasons who is 34 YEars old and in Decline…
Remember Teams have to originally be able to fit the Players “Current Contract” under their Salary Cap to be Approved by the NFL before any new Deals, Extension, or Reworking Contracts are made…
I believe the problem with Chip Kelly’s Scheme is what I have been screaming about for 2 Years now.. It’s too “Horizontal” of a Scheme and Not “Vertical” enough to keep Offenses Honest and force the Defenses to play the entire field.. This goes for both the Running Plays and Passing Plays Maybe with Bradford 3 Big Pass Plays in the 2nd Half vs the Redskins is a new wrinkle they will employ moving forward or maybe because it was just the Redskins crappy Secondary, who knows..
But back to the Rushing attack, I said all Summer that it would be a mistake to have RB Murray try and attempt to run the same type of Running Plays and Formation that RB L McCoy did, (Off the Edges, Stretch Runs, Sweeps, etc,etc) for that’s not Murray’s Running style who is a “In-between the Tackles”, Behind Center and better with a lead blocker (FB/HB) that Chip Kelly doesn’t even employ to begin with.
Murray is just a terrible fit for this Eagles Scheme much the way that high priced CB Namdi Asamough was in the Eagles zone coverage schemes when he played with the Eagles…
The Bottom line is the Eagles Interior OL (Center & 2 Guards) are not road graders and are more finesse, pulling OL that rely on their athelticism and getting out to the 2nd Level to handle LB, but they are not strong enough to move DT/DL to create holes at the point of attack…
This Eagles OL gets almost Zero movement against any Front 4 DL and look who they’ve played and really struggled against…. DL of Falcons & Cowboys who neither are that strong versus the Run
They had a little success against the 3-4 of the Jets and there were shut down against the Redskins who do have a good Rushing Defense
Look at the Schedule.. I see 4-3 alignments versus the Panthers, Bucs, Lions, Giants & Dolphins and then then Good Rushing Defenses of the Cardinals,Bills & Patriots.. so the Eagles are not going to be successful in 2015 Running the Ball unless they changed their Scheme which its too late to do now once the Season has started and should have been worked on in the Summer as I indicated 4 Months ago..
Chip Kelly is showing his arrogance further by being in denial that his “Scheme/System” is good enough to Win in the NFL for he’s 8-8 over his last 16 Games and 2-6 in his last 8 Games so he’s not beating any good Teams right now …
Shades of Andy Reed speak. Kelly is delusional when he says we have to execute. No execution with players who are not NFL starters. The Oline has been getting mauled. The receivers are lousy route runners. The defense can’t get sacks with unimaginative non surprise blitzes. Coach Payton has for the most part outcoached and outperformed the Eagles.