Chip Kelly Says Quarterback Play At The Heart Of Offense's Failure
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Eagles were supposed to lose games this year, perhaps even more than they won. So far, they're living up to that expectation. The Eagles, no matter how many games they lost, were supposed to be exciting and score points. The last two games have been anything but exciting, and the offense has not generated even one touchdown.
So what's going on here?
"I mean, we're as disappointed as everybody else," Kelly told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Monday. "I think our defense has come along in the last couple of weeks, I'm really proud of the effort that those guys have played with, the scheme that's been put together and how those guys are playing, but you go out and do what we've done the last two weeks offensively and we're not going to win any games."
If Matt Barkley starts against the Raiders, which at this point seems likely, it will be the third quarterback to start a game this year for the Eagles. The most important position on the field is in flux, and that seems to be the heart of the issue for Kelly.
LISTEN: Angelo Cataldi interviews Chip Kelly
"We need to get our quarterbacks to play better. We need to figure out who our quarterback is based on health, and then put together a game plan where we're going to score some points," Kelly said. "In any level of football, the quarterback position is the key and right now we've had instability. In the two games we haven't been successful we haven't had all of our quarterbacks available to us and we've lost one of them during the game and that's a tough deal."
Michael Vick, who injured his hamstring against the Giants three weeks ago, was given a clean enough bill of health to start on Sunday, but he looked anything but healthy. Vick was ineffective, and was pulled for Barkley in the second quarter.
"Watching the tape this morning, he [Vick] tried to scramble I think on the second series, and took off for their sideline and ended up going out of bounds after a couple yard gain, and it may have been then where he looked like he may have reinjured his leg then. I know he talked to the trainers, said he was good to go, and then he played about two more series," Kelly said. "I talked to him and asked him, Mike has always been honest with me, and at that point in time he told me he couldn't go, and that's when we got Matt [Barkley] ready to get in the game."
After Vick was pulled, he was not standing on the sideline with Barkley and Kelly, as an injured quarterback often does, instead he was sitting on the bench, often times by himself. Kelly doesn't see it as a big deal.
"Well Mike's [Vick] not calling plays or anything. I know when our quarterbacks, when Coach Lazor, Billy Lazor meets with those guys, they're all together as a group that's where kind of all the adjustments and talking goes along at that point in time. So, what's going on while we're on offense, I don't think Mike's going to contribute at that point in time. Matt's on the field playing, so," Kelly said.
No matter who the quarterback is, the Eagles and Kelly need to find out how to score more than three points over the period of two games on offense.
"I think it times of crisis everybody is going to look to you and if you're losing your mind then how do you expect them to keep theirs. We talk to our players all the time, you have to play with emotion and not let emotion play with you. Do you get pissed off? Yeah. Are you disappointed? Yeah. But if you let that effect how you are going to do things, then you aren't going to be successful," Kelly said. "You're going to have good times and you're going to have bad times and if you're a different person in both situations than you're going to live your life the way, with peaks and valleys and ups and downs. We're at the bottom looking up right now and we know to do one thing. We need to work hard, we need to shut our mouths, and lets go back to work and the same exact thing when you win. You need to shut your mouth and you need to go back to work and that's what this deal is all about. It's not about talking about it, it's about fixing it, and that's what we're going to do."
