Chip Kelly's offseason moves, so far, have backfired.
The 0-2 Eagles are struggling to find a way to work together after a disastrous home-opening loss to the rival Cowboys on Sunday that included dropped passes, bad throws, mistimed snaps and untimely play calls. In an attempt to turn around their terrible start, the Eagles coach is adamant that the entire team will be re-evaluated over the next several weeks.
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“Yes. I was embarrassed,” Kelly told 94WIP on Monday. “We have to go back to work. That’s the one thing we all know. No one is gonna feel sorry for you, you can’t feel sorry for yourself. That’s not gonna change it. It’s you gotta get back out on the practice field, we gotta train better, and we gotta train more deliberately and prepare for a really good Jets team.”
Kelly revamped the team to his liking during the offseason, adding big names Sam Bradford, DeMarco Murray, Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso to the roster, though his acquisitions have underperformed thus far.
In Sunday's game, Bradford logged a team-high nine yards rushing while Murray, the reigning NFL rushing champ, managed two yards on 13 carries. The Eagles' seven total rushing yards against the Cowboys was the fewest by the franchise since 1961.
Maxwell surrendered nine catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns to Julio Jones in Week 1 against the Falcons. To make matters worse, Alonso against the Cowboys suffered a left knee injury after missing the entire 2014 season with a torn ACL in the same knee.
Although the offense was a catastrophe, the defense had a productive outing, tallying three sacks and two fumble recoveries while limiting Dallas to two touchdowns.
“I think we squandered a great opportunity,” Kelly said. “I thought our defense played a really, really good football game. We didn’t show up offensively to support that effort in any manner, and when you’re playing a team like Dallas you need to play in all three phases.
"Offensively, we were abysmal.”
Kelly and the Eagles have their work cut out for them as they prepare to visit the Jets and Redskins on back-to-back road trips before returning to Philadelphia to host the Saints on Oct. 4.