Chip Kelly OK with vocal fans, not Angelo Cataldi
"You're not a true fan," the Eagles head coach told the WIP morning show host.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly made sure no one got the wrong impression from his morning interview on SportsRadio 94 WIP.
"No, I do not think like you," Kelly told host Angelo Cataldi. "I do not think like you."
Kelly had just said he had no problem with paying fans venting their frustrations.
"I don't think they were negative," Kelly said, a bit facetiously. "I think they were expressing their feelings. We laid a goose egg in the first half."
The Eagles trailed 17-0 against the Jacksonville Jaguars before roaring back to win 34-17.
"They had every right. I was booing myself," Kelly had said in his post-game news conference Sunday.
Cataldi, a staunch defender of fans' free speech, suggested the two of them think the same way.
Not exactly.
"You're a fair-weather fan, you're not a true fan," Kelly said after Cataldi, who had previously gushed about this team as a possible Super Bowl contender, admitted he was off the bandwagon the entire first half.
Kelly recalled how Cataldi sent the club pies while they were winning last season, then stopped when the team lost a single game.
That was just the most animated part of a wide-ranging interview. Kelly and Cataldi covered a lot of territory:
-- The injury to offensive lineman Evan Mathis does not appear to be "a max situation, where Evan is done for the year," Kelly said. How seriously Mathis is hurt, however, won't be certain until later today. The Inquirer's Zach Berman has more on that here.
-- Kelly did think Jacksonville's defense, especially its pass rush, wore down as the game progressed: "Part of what we do off has a cumulative effect on you like a boxer with body blows. ... Part of that was a conditioning factor."
-- He couldn't tell why Nick Foles had a bad first half without viewing game film. Watching from the sideline is one thing, but "it's a different deal when you're in the pocket and the rush is kind of climbing on you," Kelly said.
-- Kelly never panicked: "That's not the time to lose your mind and go crazy." And he didn't make any radical adjustments at halftime: "We had some things there, we just had to execute better."
Kelly also heaped praise this morning on running back Darren Sproles, who broke off a 49-yard touchdown run early in the second half for the Birds' first touchdown.
"I was really, really impressed with him as a running back ... and that's what I've been saying since day one. He's everything. ... To have him with us is a huge boost for us," Kelly said.
Kelly almost succeeded in ending the interview on a positive note, calling the players an "outstanding group."
"I will be supporting the team till the next bad series," Cataldi said.
"I love your honesty," Kelly said.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com. Follow @petemucha on Twitter.