Highlights From Chip Kelly’s Press Conference


Photo by: Jeff Fusco

Photo by: Jeff Fusco

The Eagles were able to escape Indianapolis with a 30-27 win and a 2-0 record. They are on top of their division and have the No. 1 ranked offense in the league through two weeks. And yet much of the conversation in the locker room late Monday night was about the need to clean up various aspects of their game.

“I think they’re very honest in their assessments and that they can improve,” said Chip Kelly of his players at his day-after press conference. “No one should be patting themselves on the back anywhere. We’re fortunate to be 2-0, we’ve done a great job of coming back in both games but there’s a lot of work in every aspect of the game that we need to work on. That’s the great thing about this group, they understand that.”

Nick Foles is one player who isn’t satisfied with his performance early on in the season. Kelly said his quarterback is essentially seeing the same looks that he did last year, and couldn’t pinpoint one thing that has led to him misfiring at times.

“There’s not just one thing. If it’s one thing then it’s easily correctable, but if it’s not just one thing then you have to kind of work on everything,” said Kelly. “Sometimes the pocket gets collapsed and they get walked back into him. Sometimes he needs to step up a little bit when it’s a wide outside rush. It’s a combination of those things.”

As we detailed earlier, Foles hasn’t quite been in sync with his receivers in the early going. That’s particularly true when it comes to Riley Cooper, who has five catches for 37 yards on 11 targets through two games.

Kelly said that Cooper is getting the same type of separation that he did last year, and isn’t concerned about the amount of production coming from the outside right now.

“We don’t care where the production comes from. You end up getting 460 yards of offense and scoring 30 points, it’s enough for us to win so we’re happy with it.”

LeSean McCoy hasn’t gone off yet but that doesn’t mean he is not making an impact, Kelly said.

“Sometimes things are geared to take him away. If they are geared to take him away then other guys have to make plays. We have enough weapons around LeSean where you have to pick your poison so to speak in terms of who you are going to defend. People are kind of honed in on him and rightly so but it opens the field up for some of the other guys. Some of our big plays have occurred on play-action passes and there is a reason for that…I think he’s doing a good job, he’s training real well and it just depends on how people are going to defend us on a week-to-week basis.”

— Kelly said that Mychal Kendricks had an MRI on his calf this morning but did not offer any further details.

— The Eagles went through a walkthrough Tuesday as preparation for Washington begins. It sounds like Dennis Kelly will remain with the first team at left guard when practice resumes tomorrow.

— An ESPN camera focused in on Kelly’s play chart during the broadcast Monday, putting it out there for the world to see.

“That’s why they’re the Worldwide Leader, right?” Kelly joked. “Not much to do about it. They already did it, right? What am I going to complain about it?”