Highlights From Chip


Photo by: Jeff Fusco

Photo by: Jeff Fusco

Here are some highlights from Chip Kelly‘s day-after press conference:

— Kelly would not confirm reports about the extent of the injuries to Evan Mathis and Allen Barbre, saying that he had yet to meet with the team doctor and trainer. As such, he wouldn’t go into hypotheticals about who he may be missing or how he’ll compensate for their absence.

In more general terms, he talked about the importance of continuity along the offensive front.

“I think anytime you can get the same guys playing next to each other…I think that’s just a general philosophy that everybody kind of adheres to just because they are on the same page, they spent a lot of time together, they trained together, they have a feel for each other and they have a real good understanding for what this guy’s going to when this happens because we’ve seen it 17 times and it’s not the first time they saw it,” he said. “Anytime you can have continuity I think it’s a bonus but obviously injuries a part of the game and if you don’t have it, next guy’s got to go in. And I thought [Andrew] Gardner and [David] Molk did a good job when they went in there.”

Kelly said he was unsure when Matt Tobin, who is working through an ankle injury, might be back, only that he is progressing.

Dennis Kelly — a likely candidate to play left guard against the Colts — played mostly right guard during training camp but did get some reps at left guard, the head coach said.

— Kelly has watched tape on Nick Foles and while he won’t be able to evaluate his performance in full  until he sits down with the quarterback, he did allow that his signal-caller held onto the ball for too long at times and missed some reads. The coach and QB did have conversations on the sideline during Foles’ struggles, and Kelly said he wasn’t alarmed by what he was hearing.

“He was pretty straight on with, what was your decision here and where were you going with the ball? ‘I felt like the linebacker was taking away the in and when I got to my next progression I got moved a little bit in the pocket.’ He was giving you the information. It wasn’t anything where you were really confused by what he was saying. I think he was on point with what he was saying.”

— Fielding a question about Nolan Carroll and Earl Wolff rotating into the game some on Friday, Kelly mentioned that when you have 46 guys active on game day, you’e going to play all 46 if you can. The natural follow-up:  Marcus Smith dressed but didn’t see any snaps. Why?

“We felt BG [Brandon Graham] right there was going to go in on both sides and that’s what he did, give Connor [Barwin] a little bit of a blow and Trent [Cole] a little bit of a blow.”

— Special teams played a big part in Sunday’s game. Five of Cody Parkey‘s seven kickoffs were for touchbacks and he also booted a 51-yard field goal. Brandon Boykin downed a Donnie Jones punt at the 1-yard line. Chris Maragos had a big tackle on kickoff coverage. And Darren Sproles had a pair of quality punt returns that helped turn the field position tide.

“Our special teams was obviously a little bit improved from where it was year ago. You had five touchbacks and the two that were taken out one was taken to the 13 and the other was taken to the 14. We excelled in the punt return, obviously adding Darren back there but I thought we blocked it better. I think we had five punts downed inside the 20 yard line. We did some good work there. We need a little work on kickoff return, that needs to improve, but I thought Chris was a real good addition here in the offseason. He takes a lot of pride in being a special teams player and stood out for us from that standpoint.”