Kelly Angry With Penalties: 'Shooting Ourselves In The Foot'
By Andrew Porter and Joseph Santoliquito
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- There was litany of things that went wrong in the Eagles' 26-24 season-opening loss to the Atlanta Falcons Monday night, but what Chip Kelly seemed more annoyed with than anything else were the 10 penalties for 88 yards the Eagles were flagged for.
"First and foremost, the thing that jumps out is penalties," Eagles coach Chip Kelly said during his press conference on Tuesday. "We had seven penalties on the offensive side of the ball that negated---not only did we lose 60 yards, but we negated 98 yards gained. We had a 29-yarder called back, a 25-yarder called back, a 14-yarder called back, a seven-yarder called back, a nine-yarder called back. And you can't do that, especially when you're the away team and a team that plays that well at home. You hurt yourself, so you negate 98-yards gained."
Related: Five plays that cost the Eagles the game
Two of those 10 penalties are specifically agonizing for Kelly and the Eagles.
The first was a Kiko Alonso illegal contact penalty, negating a Fletcher Cox sack-fumble recovered by Connor Barwin late in the first half.
"We also had a turnover that we created, that we had called back because of a penalty on the defensive side of the ball," Kelly said. "So when you really look at how many yards we lost on the offensive side of the ball and a turnover on the defensive side of the ball, we're shooting ourselves in the foot."
The second, was an unnecessary Jason Kelce holding penalty, negating a 25-yard gain on a screen pass to Ryan Mathews. The Eagles would have had a 1st-and-10 from the Falcons 10-yard line, with a chance to take the lead late in the game. Instead, the drive stalled, ending in a missed 44-yard Cody Parkey field-goal and essentially, a chance to win the game.
"We don't have a penalty on the screen pass, the ball's on the 10-yard line," Kelly said.
It wasn't one thing either. The Eagles were penalized for everything.
"We had an offensive pass interference. We had a hold inside on a screen pass," Kelly said. "We had another on a down block. It's not always one penalty that's coming up, but again, it's everybody doing their job. Some of the penalties in the holding standpoint, is we're in proper position but we stop our feet. We stop our feet, then we gotta grab and hold on. So, we gotta run through blocks, whether it's at the perimeter or whether it's inside.
"If you're gonna be a good football team in this league, you can't be a highly penalized team in this league."