Eagles Wake-Up Call: Three Leftovers From Kelly

Below are three leftovers from Chip Kelly’s press conference on Tuesday.

1. You’ll often hear coaches use the term self-scouting when describing their bye-week activities.

What does that mean exactly?

“We just analyze what we did in certain situations,” Kelly said. “We went through goal line, we went through coming out, we went through third-down situations, we went through openers, kind of looked at everything. What we were successful at — kind of looked at it on film — what we weren’t successful at [and] why we weren’t successful at it. Was it personnel? Was it scheme? Was it we weren’t prepared for this? So, you’re kind of looking at everything that you’re doing.”

Just a hunch, but I’m guessing red zone was a real point of emphasis. The Eagles’ offense currently ranks tied for last in that area, converting possessions into touchdowns just 40 percent of the time. Part of that is scheme/play-calling, part of it is probably personnel (specifically the banged-up offensive line), and part of that is quarterback play.

Nick Foles is completing just 45.2 percent of his pass attempts in the red zone and has a passer rating of 66.1 inside the opponents’ 20. Last year, those numbers were 70.3 percent completions and a 122.4 passer rating.

We’ll find out this weekend what kind of solutions Kelly and his staff come up with.

2. Back in the summer, Kelly brought up Patrick Peterson’s name unprompted when asked about Riley Cooper.

“Two of the best corners, Patrick Peterson, a guy that just signed an outstanding contract who I think is one of the tops in the league, Richard Sherman, probably the two best guys are both big, physical corners and they’ll try to beat you up on the line of scrimmage,” Kelly said at the time. “If you can’t get off the line of scrimmage, you’re done. Moving towards that, I think the corners are getting bigger in this league, and the wideouts are getting bigger in this league. But that’s one of Riley’s strengths is his ability to get off that stuff. No one’s going to get off clean and just be running like you said down the field with no one around him for 4 or 5 yards. When the ball is up, you have to be able to go get it. Having a 6-4 guy that’s 230 pounds, it helps.”

On Tuesday, I asked Kelly what separates Peterson from his peers.

“I just think his size,” he said. “He’s 6-foot-1, 219 pounds playing corner. And he’s got breakaway speed. He’s been an outstanding returner in this league. They’ve actually used him on offense at times, I think. That combination of athleticism with that size is pretty difficult to replicate. I don’t think there’s many people that are as big as him.”

Defenses this year have mixed in more zone looks against the Eagles, but their wide receivers – Cooper and Jeremy Maclin – will be asked to win against physical press corners in Peterson and Antonio Cromartie this weekend.

3. When Victor Cruz tore his patellar tendon during the Eagles’ Week 6 win over the Giants, he was admitted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. On Monday morning, Kelly paid him a visit.

“I just think the way he got injured, and I think when you look at what happened, I mean, we’re all competitors in this game,” Kelly said. “But there’s a feeling, no matter who it is, when you see someone get hurt in a game, and to the extent that he got hurt is just… just had an opportunity on Monday morning to stop by and see if he was OK, [see] if he needed anything before he got transferred up to New York.”

The Cruz injury clearly affected a lot of the Eagles. Brandon Boykin said he could hear Cruz screaming. Cary Williams, Jeremy Maclin and others huddled around Cruz as the medical staff tended to him on the field. And Kelly followed up with a nice gesture Monday morning, visiting Cruz at the hospital.

WHAT YOU MISSED

“Physically, I definitely feel a change.” Kelly has eased up on practices, according to Cary Williams.

Jason Kelce says a rushed return could cause a setback. Updates on all the recovering Eagles.

Five things to know about the Arizona Cardinals.

T-Mac takes stock of the Eagles’ rushing attack going into Week 8.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Marcus Hayes of the Daily News on Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur:

Shurmur is the offensive coordinator of an offensive system for which he usually gets no credit – neither for its conception, nor its implementation, nor its execution on game day. Will this perception handicap Shurmur the next time he is considered for a head-coaching job?

Hardly.

“The association with Chip, both in terms of method and scheme, will be a real positive. Not sure how soon, but I would be very surprised if he doesn’t get another shot. He deserves it.”

Joe Banner said that.

Geoff Mosher of CSN Philly takes a look at the Birds’ upcoming schedule:

The Eagles don’t catch any breaks in the next month. After their game against Arizona, they have another road game the following Sunday against the Texans, followed by a home Monday night game against the Panthers and then another road game against the NFC North-leading Packers.

Only the Texans, who lost to the Steelers on Monday night, currently have a losing record. The Cards have impressive wins over the Chargers and 49ers, with their only loss coming to Denver. The Packers have won four straight by an average of 19.5 points.

COMING UP

We’ll talk to Pat Shurmur and Billy Davis and have updates from practice.