HAS THE NFL CAUGHT UP TO CHIP KELLY?

Flashback to 2013 Chip Kelly inherits a pretty decent Andy Reid team and proceeds to swiftly implement his unusual but highly effective form of high octane offense. The Leagues defensive coordinators are caught off guard and the Eagles rack up two 10-6 winning seasons, averaging 30-33+ points A game and in the process Chip is heralded as an offensive genius! And not the Wylie Coyote kind of Genius either.

Fast Forward to now and the offense can barely function as a cohesive unit much less put up those high numbers as of recent past. Chip is starting to get that Deer in the headlights look, Sam Bradford so far has been a bigger disappointment than Vegetarian Cheesesteaks, Demarco Murray is about two seconds from punching someone in the mouth! And The Offensive Line……………………….much like Jeffrey Lurie’s Hairline, it doesn’t exist!

It certainly starting to look like The NFL has caught up to Chip Kelly’s Offensive Scheme, just listen to what NY Jets Outside Rush Linebacker had to say about Chip’s Offensive schemes. And boy oh boy! Does he have a lot to say!

“We’re professionals. It’s not like in college [where] you’re just playing on athleticism. [Kelly’s offense] can work there, because everybody is just out there free playing [on defense], so to say.

“But when you’re in the league, we study, we focus, we watch film numerous hours throughout the week. If you know that [Kelly’s offense] can’t change, or they don’t have no type of [in-game] adjustments, you’ve got to play your [gap] responsibility, and everything else will handle itself.”
too soon to say Kelly’s offensive approach will fade away like the Wildcat formation, which was once fairly prominent in the NFL.

“And then, now what?” Coples said. “Nobody wants to run it. That’s the crazy part about the league. Everybody is adapting. Once you get stopped, everybody focuses on that. If one team stops you, then it’s a copycat league. If you don’t think we looked at Dallas film, why wouldn’t we? They were disciplined the whole game [with staying in their gaps on defense].”

Because of its tempo, Kelly’s offense needs to be simplified, Coples said. This limits the amount of in-game adjustments Kelly can make, if a defense stops his scheme, according to Coples, who formulated his impressions from film study. Coples said Kelly has to “keep doing the same thing,” even if it is failing.

“If they get you, it’s beautiful,” Coples said. “But once you stop it, they don’t have anything else. It’s not like they can go to the playbook and create something, or change the route or nothing like that. They are who they are.”

“It’s not like Denver, Indianapolis, Patriots. If they get you, they’ll stick with it. If they don’t get you, they might get up there and audible, make a change on the sideline. [The Eagles] don’t have that. They just have what they have. Because you can’t do but so much if you’re trying to rush everything, because you have to make it simple.

“If you don’t make it simple, then you just don’t have anything, because you’re all over the place. You can’t have people thinking when you’re trying to do everything real, real, real, real fast. And they’re trying to do stuff real, real, real, real fast. So they can’t afford to have 60, 70 plays in a playbook, because you’ve got to be fast, and everything has to be up-tempo.”

“The simple, basic, hardest thing to do is to stay disciplined, “You can know all you want to, but if you don’t be disciplined, then they’ll gash you. That’s the biggest challenge. You’ve got to stay disciplined, man, and everything else will work itself out.”

NFL defenses have struggled against Kelly’s Eagles because his offense “was just a shock to everybody,” Coples said. “Everybody was surprised. We weren’t used to that in the NFL.”

“The NFL is more of a thinking league,” Coples said, “and everybody has time to adjust”.

Well he sure said a mouthful! Sounded pretty good too, but hey that’s just his opinion……….. And probably most of the Fans in Phila. And NFL Fans around the world! Buts let’s look on the bright side, it’s still early in the season, the team is young with Mad talent and Chip has started off 1-3 before.

But as of now Chip it looks like the NFL has you figured out, Check! Let’s hope you can yell Checkmate, turn it all around & show the world that maybe you just might be a Super Genius after all. The good kind of Genius, not this guy below.

And oh yea Chip here’s a lil tip, don’t yell Checkmate, it has absolutely nothing to do with Football.

Abe Finklestein
Sports Humour

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