Eagles should score as much as they can
Given defense's shortcomings, Eagles would be prudent to put as many points on the board as possible.
HAD CHIP KELLY been in Philadelphia for the last 14 years, he would have a better grasp as to why his clock-management decision in Sunday's 33-30 loss to San Diego has engulfed Eagles fans in such a wave of fear.
Former head coach Andy Reid, who, coincidentally, returns to Philadelphia Thursday night when the Eagles host the Kansas City Chiefs, was notorious for his failure to manage the clock.
His continuous wasting of timeouts and mismanagement of other time elements that affected the outcome of games are stuff of ignominious legend.
So with the Eagles down three points and having the ball on the San Diego 14 with 2:09 left, Kelly caused some head-scratching for armchair quarterbacks because he didn't slow his fastbreak attack and burned only 14 seconds off the clock before Alex Henery ended up kicking a game-tying field goal.
It brought on flashbacks of Reid, and when the Chargers casually marched to the winning field goal because they had plenty of time and two timeouts remaining, it brought out some of the same complaints Reid used to get.
Immediately after the game, Kelly's thoughts were that the Eagles were "trying to score a touchdown. We weren't trying to kick a field goal."
Through Sunday night and Monday morning, however, the opinion of many pundits and fans was that even if the goal was to get a touchdown, Kelly should have worked the clock down, so the Chargers would have less time to go back at a hapless Eagles defense that was in the process of surrendering 539 yards of total offense.
Yesterday, at his day-after media conference, Kelly sort of acknowledged that, after reviewing the situation, maybe he should have done things a little bit differently.
"Yeah, when you look at it in hindsight, we didn't score [the touchdown]," he said. "We kicked a field goal, so it was tied.
"We wanted to try to score a touchdown, go up four and then make them have to drive the entire field at that point in time. So obviously when you look back at it, we probably should have run the clock down."
I'm not sure Kelly bought the argument that even if the Eagles had scored the touchdown, leaving the Chargers' offense nearly 2 minutes to operate was still a bad position to be in.
His words didn't exactly say he agreed with the thought that the Eagles should have worked the clock while concurrently trying to score the touchdown.
It was a measured decision to attack in their normal method of operation.
"No, not at all," Kelly said when asked whether his system made it difficult to drop from warp speed to impulse power. "It's not difficult at all. That was just my decision and my decision totally.
"Could we have [used the clock more]? Sure. But we wouldn't have scored a lot of points. So, you're in a Catch-22 . . . You can play that game and say, hey let's work the clock here a little bit, but if you start handcuffing our offense, then we may have not scored enough points to even get the tie."
I have to admit that the entire "slowing the pace of the game" thing has always been a juggle for me.
While I understand the benefit of taking time off the clock in certain situations, I've always leaned toward scoring a touchdown whenever you can, regardless of how much time is left on the clock.
I always thought it was a risk of arrogance to burn time off the clock with the idea that you'd automatically score with 15 seconds left instead of 1:50.
Football is a team game. A defense should be expected to be able to hold if it has been given a lead or a tie in the closing minutes.
Regardless of your train of thought, this seems like an issue that will certainly pop up for debate several more times this season.
After two games, the Eagles are second to the Green Bay Packers in total offense and third to the Denver Broncos and Packers in points. Still, they are 1-1 with an aggregate score of 63-60 because the defense ranks 28th in points and 30th in yards allowed per game.
With 10 total games remaining against eight teams currently ranked in the Top 12 in scoring, the Eagles are likely to be in a few more down-to-the-wire finishes.
"I don't have a preconceived notion of what the games are going to be like, from a [perspective of] how many points we're going to score or they're going to score. I can't tell you that," Kelly said.
"But I do know that every game we're going to play is going to be close, and that's what this league is all about. I saw a stat this morning that there's been 31 games played and 22 of them have been decided by a touchdown or less."
It's up for debate whether Kelly will do something radically different the next time.
Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood
Blog: ph.ly/DNL