Chip Kelly: Time Of Possession, Yards Allowed Do Not Matter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chip Kelly likes when the Eagles offense moves fast. He wants to score, and he wants to score as much as possible, and for that to happen, the team must move quickly. By moving so quickly, the Eagles don't hold on to the ball for very long, and Kelly doesn't care.
"I consider plays run and points scored. I don't think---I would argue that against anybody. It doesn't matter how long you have the ball, what matters is what are you doing and your production with the plays you run," Kelly said, defending his previously stated position on time of possession to Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Monday. "I think it would be silly for us to say don't throw the ball deep down the field to Riley [Cooper] or DeSean [Jackson] and score touchdowns because you want to milk the clock. The object of the game, offensively, is to score points and the object of the game , defensively, is to stop teams from scoring points."
The Eagles lost the time of possession battle to the Packers, holding the ball for 26 minutes to the Packers 34, but still won the game 27-13. The previous week, in the team's 49-20 blowout win over the Raiders, the Eagles held the ball for just 22 minutes to the Raiders 38 minutes. It's hard to argue the results of the last two weeks.
Nick Foles had himself another good game, completing 66% of his passes, and throwing for three touchdowns without an interception.
"It was a combination of really making good decisions, very rarely does Nick put the ball in harms way. I think he had DeSean [Jackson] open on the deep ball. It was really, really windy on the field and it was tough going in that direction. I think he made the right decision on the throw, I think the ball just got caught up in the air on that one. And that's the thing with Nick," Kelly said. "You're going to get a guy that's not going to force it, he's going to make good decisions, he's going to not put the ball in harms way and then I think we've got some guys in DeSean and Coop [Cooper]---I thought Jason Avant had a huge catch for us on a key third down---that can make plays and then you put that together with our offensive line and our running backs. I think it's the whole group that contributes to it."
While the offense is clicking again, the defense has improved substantially. The Eagles have allowed an average of just under 18 points per game over the last six games. But while the defense hasn't allowed many points, they're still allowing a good number of yards. The Eagles are 32nd in the league in yards allowed. But just like time of possession, Kelly doesn't think yards allowed matter either.
"No, see we don't play fantasy football. Our concern offensively, is can we score points, and defensively can we not let them score points and that's what football is all about," Kelly said. "Steve Spurrier said once, teams are really good driving the ball between the 20's, but when you really find out what type of football team you have is when you're inside the 20s. I think we're playing great red zone defense. Brandon Boykin made a huge interception for us down there and we need to capitalize whenever they give us opportunities to score and we feed off each other, but it's about how many points do you score and how many points do you give up. For the last two weeks, that has worked for us."
