Kelly handles pro debut
In the swirl of coaches fired, coaches available, coaches rejected and coaches hired that begins immediately after any NFL season, there was one name last winter that floated above the rest. There was also one question.
The name : Charles “Chip” Kelly. The question: Could he take what he’d done as the head coach at the University of Oregon and apply it to the NFL, where he had never coached, coordinated or made a contribution to a single play?
One preseason game into his career, this much is clear: Kelly will not be overwhelmed by the challenge.
Since the premise itself was senseless — that the coach of a BCS-level national championship contender was somehow less equipped to coach in the NFL than the usual swarm of eager profootball assistants who had never been in charge of anything — Kelly didn’t need to disprove any of it Friday at the Linc. Just the same, he did. For in a match against Bill Belichick, who had coached an NFL game or two, Kelly was anything but out of place. In fact, Belichick never did have to ask his assistants if the scoreboard were properly functioning, as he had in the Super Bowl against the Eagles’ previous coach, the one who was so mangling the time-space continuum that it would set the franchise back 10 years.
If anything, the Patriots were stung by the crispness, speed and varied looks of Kelly’s offense, which needed five plays from scrimmage, including one 22-yard pass to Jason Avant and a 47-yard touchdown throw from Michael Vick to DeSean Jackson, to cause Belichick to break into the homina-homina-hominas.
“That is an offense we practiced against, but it’s still a tough offense to play against,” Belichick said. “And we got a lot of looks on it, and I think that will serve us well when we have to go up against that again.”
The Birds would lose, 3122, and that was about right, even if they didn’t necessarily play to win in the fourth quarter, choosing not to hurry a field goal with longsnapper Jon Dorenbos having been injured earlier. But as much as the quarterback battle between Vick and Nick Foles, the continuing effort to remake a defense that Andy Reid had seen trampled under a parade of coordinators following the death of Jim Johnson, and the usual bottom-of-the-roster job auditions, Kelly’s NFL debut was a compelling preseason-opener story.
How would he do coaching older adults instead of college-age players? How would his celebrated fast-forward offense look in real time? Would he trip coming out of the tunnel before the game … or have to hide while ducking back into it afterward?
“I didn’t really think of it that way,” Kelly said. “You kind of just focus on the game itself, and it’s 11-on-11. That part is a little bit different for me. I also didn’t play. I think some of those guys were a little more fatigued than I was on the sideline.”
Kelly has coached in a national championship game, where the stakes are slightly higher than an August pro game with the No. 1 goal being to squeeze the best players onto the field and then back off before anyone brandishing a stethoscope has to get involved. It might be different if the Eagles are involved in what should be a good race in an ordinary NFC East in December.
But for one night, Kelly handled his quarterbacks and his timeouts well, and he did not have critics laughing at his clock-abuse. The defense, which has not tackled much during camp, is not ready, but that’s why Kelly has a five-year contract.
Even after the game, Kelly literally was a stand-up pro, comfortably responding to all questions with expansive thoughts, a scent of humor and the understanding that it is the fans who benefit. The Eagles lost a game. Indications were that they won something better.
“I am excited about what this offense can do,” Vick said. “I think that group in the locker room understands that we are on the right track.”
That’s how it looked. That’s how it looked because a college coach was ready for the pro game.