Chip Kelly Talks Vikings Loss, Shoots Down Texas Rumors
By Joseph Santoliquito
Philadelphia, PA (CBS) — Chip Kelly was a little short with some answers, and addressed LeSean McCoy's eight carries. He also spoke about Nick Foles' inconsistency and the porous defense in the Eagles' 48-30 loss to the Vikings on Sunday during his day-after press conference at the NovaCare Complex.
"I expect them to bounce back, I've seen them bounce back before," Kelly said about his team's resiliency. "That's what I'm anticipating happening. It has to be a one-week season. For five-straight weeks, we did a pretty good job and Mondays around here. Today, Mondays aren't pretty good, but they shouldn't be pretty good, because we were disappointing and we didn't do what we were supposed to do yesterday."
McCoy ran the ball just eight times, held in check for a mere 38 yards against Minnesota. That came after his record-breaking 217-yard game on 29 carries in the snow against the Lions. Foles led the Eagles with 41 yards rushing.
Asked if McCoy's carries were reduced to eight over being down in the score and the Vikings' defensive scheme, Kelly responded, "I think it's a combination of the two. They were definitely playing single-high safety and always had an extra guy down in [the box], where they had him down weak, or they had him down strong. They changed that up a little bit, but there was always going to be an unblocked guy within two to three yards of the line of scrimmage.
"Whenever we win, I'm not comfortable. There is never a breakdown of it has to be this and it has to be that. It's what are we gaining for yards. You can bang your head against the wall and say we need to run the ball more, but we went for it on fourth-and-a-half yard and we did not get it. So I should probably kick myself in the tail and we should have thrown a pass in that situation."
Kelly also pointed out that if teams were committed to loading the box against them, it opens single coverage down the field.
As for Foles, who was ironically the score of the game, 30-for-48, for 428 yards and three touchowns, Kelly said it was a matter of sometimes getting his feet set and it led to being inaccurate sometimes, overthrowing receivers.
Kelly's name has also been mentioned for the Texas opening, and he addressed that by saying, "I'm not involved in any jobs, I'm the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and I'm going to prepare for the [Chicago] Bears and prepare for the Cowboys after that, hopefully, we'll have an opportunity to go to the playoffs and I plan to be here for a while. I don't know [why his name] keeps coming up. I consider myself a pro coach eight times this year, and six times I haven't."
Kelly cited the play of Vikings' quarterback Matt Cassel, but in critical situations, the Eagles did not get Minnesota off the field.
"There were times in man coverage we just weren't close enough to our guy," Kelly said. "On third-and-14 [at the Eagles' 42], and it's a 27-22 game, they convert on a pass to the tight end [former Eagle Chase Ford]. We were in man coverage on that."
Joe Santoliquito is a contributing sports blogger for CBS Philly.
