Mark Saltveit wrote a piece for FishDuck.com on Kelly losing games 2 and 3. It is funny to read his piece and see his frustration with Kelly being too conventional.
Worst of all, Kelly is losing with a conservative, often conventional attack unlike anything seen in Oregon for years. After wowing football fans with his Oregon-style attack in game 1, Kelly showed a much more typical NFL offense in game 2. That was fine, since the offense was still very successful (30 points and 511 yards). After two games, Shady led the league in rushing, DeSean was the receiving leader, and Vick was 3rd in QB passer rating (behind only Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning). It’s hard to see even now how anyone has “figured out” Chip’s offense; the Eagles have 1,385 yards of total offense after three games, the most in team history. As far as I could see, Kansas City did not have a strategy that led to those turnovers or the failed pass blocking by the Eagles’ offensive line. It was more a question of players getting beat, one-on-one.
Some fans/media would tell you Kelly isn’t being conventional enough. But the Oregon folks miss the Chip Kelly they saw for the past 4 years. I expect him to be more aggressive as he becomes more comfortable. We’ll see.
The statistic that leaps out at me; according to Sheil Kapadia’s count, the Eagles ran only 9 read-option plays in game 2 and 10 in game 3 (vs. 49 in game 1). Yet they averaged 14.5 yards on those plays against KC, vs. only 5.8 on their 14 other running plays.
http://www.phillymag.com/eagles/2013/09/20/game-review-eagles-offense-vs-chiefs-defense/
Here’s a good perspective on all this from some blogger.
http://igglesblitz.com/2013/09/chip-has-to-be-chip/
I’m actually surprised how conventional the Eagles offense has looked to be sure. I was really expecting some more creative looks, based on everything I read. We could have used some creative looks versus KC that’s for sure!