The city of Philadelphia was basically on suicide watch after the loss to Dallas, with the only energy wielded by people forming lynch mobs for Chip Kelly. Much of the pessimism was realistic, too. The Eagles’ offense was easily the worst in the NFL, as their three running backs combined for negative yardage against the Cowboys’ decimated defense. Kelly was running …
Things are bad. Really, really bad. The Eagles were somewhat cheered by a stronger second half against the Atlanta Falcons in their Game 1 loss, and hyped up their home showdown against the hated Dallas Cowboys with a cheeky video that poked fun at New Jersey governor and Cowboys fan Chris Christie. Then they rewarded the large national TV audience with …
The Atlanta Falcons had the worst defense in the NFL last year, ending up 6-10 despite boasting one of the league’s best QB-WR tandems in Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Dan Quinn was the defensive mastermind behind the Seattle Seahawks during the last two years, when that defense led them to the Super Bowl twice, and an inspired choice to take …
After a crazy off-season of frenetic wheeling and dealing, controversies and silly hype, the Eagles season begins, for real, on Monday night during Prime Time. The final preparations are done. The Eagles lost their fourth preseason game, the most pointless, which strangely reassured some people who love to tell you preseason games don’t matter. Which is sort of true, except that …
Eastern Washington fought the Ducks fiercely and cleverly Saturday, but a surprisingly competitive game was ruined by a cheap hit on Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams by one of his former teammates. After Adams scrambled for seven yards and slid to the ground untouched, EWU sophomore rover John Kreifels dove on top of him, delivering a helmet to helmet hit that …
Philadelphia Eagles fans have two main emotions. The most common one is irascible doom-mongering. “The team sucks”; “I loved the guy they got rid of”; “that was the stupidest decision ever.” As Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation puts it: Some people are not happy unless they’re not happy. #makesuthink — Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 8, 2014 Chip …
In his first three months as general manager of the Eagles, Chip Kelly machine-gunned a stunning series of roster changes that left many observers saying he was over his head in player personnel decisions. He traded RB LeSean McCoy for LB Kiko Alonso, refused to match Kansas City’s $11 million offer for WR Jeremy Maclin, signed two CBs (Byron Maxwell …
Preseason games mean nothing — we all know that. And yet … the Philadelphia Eagles stomped on the Indianapolis Colts Sunday, and it was hard not to be excited by the way the team played. Even if you ignore the final score — 36-10, not that it mattered — there were a lot of individual performances that were highly encouraging. …
Two weeks of training camp are done, and Chip Kelly‘s Eagles play their first preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Meanwhile, injuries are starting to accumulate. Kelly plays it safe, with no tackling to the ground at all in the preseason outside of actual games, and the team is making great efforts to handle inevitable injuries with its “reconditioning” …
After the long but quiet summer break, the Eagles opened training camp in humid 90-degree Philadelphia weather. News broke that they traded cornerback Brandon Boykin to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a fifth round pick. (If he plays 60% or more of the snaps this year, that changes to a fourth round pick.) Boykin is an excellent nickel corner with long arms …
My new book is out. Controlled Chaos: Chip Kelly‘s Football Revolution tells the story of the Eagles’ crazy 2014 season, including the off-seasons before and after. There was a lot of turmoil, from the sudden release of DeSean Jackson and Chip’s bureaucratic death match with Howie Roseman to the explosion of wheeling and dealing this past spring, when Chip took …
There is a lot of “conventional wisdom” going around about the Philadelphia Eagles these days. For example: — Chip Kelly is an offensive wizard who doesn’t care about defense. — DeMarco Murray is worn out and headed for a crash, while LeSean McCoy will be huge for Buffalo. — All of the Eagles’ new players — Murray, Kiko Alonso, Ryan …