Chip Kelly Is The Reason For The Philadelphia Eagles Problems

Ever since the arrival of Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and the fact that he took a 4-12 team the year before, to the playoffs, fans instantly fell in love and have already labeled him as a future Super Bowl winning head coach. Everybody praises Kelly for his innovation and has labeled him as an offensive genius, meanwhile the Eagles head coach has only been in the league for a year and a half.

You could argue that Kelly and his brilliant offensive mind along with his arrogance and stubbornness to change his offense are the actually the reason the Eagles are 5-2 and not 7-0. If Kelly knew how to call plays at the goal line, there is no question the Eagles would be the lone undefeated team in the NFL.

I am in no way a Chip Kelly hater, and by all means I hope he is the one that brings the Philadelphia Eagles their first championship, however, he continuously makes the same mistakes and fails to realize them, the same mistakes that Andy Reid made that drove Eagles fans crazy.

To make my point I will use last week as an example, however, these are problems that have been occurring all season long. This season the running game has struggled to get going, the Eagles have failed to stretch the field, they simply cannot get points in the red zone, and Kelly is making Andy Reid-like mistakes.

1. The Run Game

LeSean McCoy has verbally stated that he prefers to run with Foles under center saying,

"“That really helped out,” McCoy said. “You can see the lanes better, see the cuts better. When there is pressure, you can adjust to it. In the gun, you’re already kind of going sideways. (Under center), you can just see, you can see better.”"

It’s no coincidence that the game against the Giants, that we finally saw the LeSean McCoy of last year, Foles played under center more. It also makes sense why we are seeing McCoy running east and west a lot more than usual.

Running out of the shotgun is fine and dandy, and I have no problem with doing it. However, when arguably your best player says that he likes running with Foles under center, wouldnt you at least create some packages to help get him going. This is the NFL, this isn’t Oregon, you don’t see NFL teams that like to run lineup in the shot gun.

Not only that, but on third and less than one from the goal line, you most certainly don’t run out of the shotgun, you line up under center with three tight ends or at the very least run a quarterback sneak with your 6’6” quarterback that would have to simply fall forward to pick up the first down.

The run game has struggled for the Eagles this season, some of it is due to the offensive line being injured, but some of it is also the play design. Chip Kelly needs to adjust his offense to fit his players. McCoy is your best player, you might want to listen to him.

2. The Red Zone

This is connected with the run game, if you can’t run the football, you arent going to score in the red zone. This season the Eagles are dead last in the red zone scoring only 34.78% of the time. That isn’t going to get the job done, at least not in the NFL. Last week the Eagles were 0-3 in the red zone coming out with two turnovers and a field goal.

Against the good teams, you have to capitalize in the red zone on offense. Unless the Eagles can continue to get special teams and defensive scores, which is very unlikely, scoring touchdowns in the red zone once every three times isn’t going to do the job. Part of the problem is that Foles is turning the ball over in the red zone, but another part is once again the play calling and inability to run the ball.

On the Foles interception last week that was intended for Josh Huff, Kelly even said it in his press conference that they should have run the ball. The only problem is, Kelly doesn’t trust McCoy and he doesn’t trust the offensive line. Chip Kelly is supposed to be a offensive genius, and until those two problems are solved, the red zone problems will continue and if they do the Eagles will not beat the top teams in the NFL.