The Eagles offense flopped in grand fashion on Sunday against the Cowboys as their 21 first-half yards, three turnover and total inability to run the ball helped the Cowboys to a 20-10 win that came despite the loss of Tony Romo to a fractured left clavicle and 18 penalties that would normally make it difficult to win a football game on the road against a division rival.
When the Eagles offense played the way it did on Sunday, however, all things are possible.
Coach Chip Kelly, who both designed the scheme and hand-picked the players to fill the roster, will bear most of the heat for the performance. At his postgame press conference, Kelly said that the Eagles won’t win games if they can’t run the football and that offensive line changes will be considered after the team ran for seven yards on 17 carries. Some will surely suggest that the Eagles shouldn’t have gotten rid of both starting guards from last year’s team, but only a souped-up DeLorean is going to make a redo possible on that front.
Kelly said that everyone involved with the offense will be evaluated, including the team’s coaches and quarterback Sam Bradford, who Kelly said he didn’t consider benching on Sunday. Bradford had a hand (or a chest, in the case of a snap that he wasn’t expecting) in all three turnovers and Mark Sanchez would get the call in the event Kelly wants to shift gears.
Bradford wasn’t good, but Kelly’s right about the team’s need to fix the run game. They are built to run the football and they’ve now picked up just 80 yards in the first two weeks. If they can’t run it better, any quarterback is going to have a hard time succeeding in Kelly’s offense.