Wake-Up Call: ‘I Wouldn’t Want To Play the Eagles’

Last month, former quarterback-turned-ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer called Chip Kelly “the finest football coach I’ve ever studied.”

Dilfer went into further detail on what he likes about the Eagles head coach during his visit with Jon and Sean on 97.5 The Fanatic this week.

“I think you can pull back and see it from a tree-top level and say okay everybody’s panicking, everybody’s freaking out, everybody thinks this is the most important thing or that’s the most important thing. What is truly the most important thing? What’s the one thing today that’s gonna allow us to be great? And I think he buys in like a lot of the great coaches of all time: that it’s team,” he said. “It’s getting everybody to have one heartbeat and realize they all have a job to do to make the organism work better. The ecosystem to work at it’s highest functional rate. And that’s what he does. It’s bigger than one piece, it’s bigger than two pieces, it’s bigger than six pieces. It’s 53, the coaching staff, the vibe, the environment, that everyday you’re getting the most from people. And I know that we could probably spend 30 minutes on this but honestly that’s what Chip does, more than just the system. The system is the same football plays that have been run for many years, he just dresses them up a little differently.”

Kelly, who just this week proclaimed “culture will beat scheme every day,” likely agrees with Dilfer’s general sentiment.

Having a good scheme doesn’t hurt, of course, and Dilfer was very high on what the Eagles are doing in that respect, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

“I wouldn’t wanna play the Eagles. They really mess with people,” Dilfer said with a laugh. “They’re not great on defense but what they do, what Billy Davis has done on defense is a nightmare to prepare for. When you play wide three’s with double A-gap pressure consistently, you’ll prove that you’ll keep bringing it, it reduces your playbook in half. So every team they play offensively has half the playbook they had the week before, just because of their scheme.”

Dilfer was asked about the quarterback situation as well.

“Well, Chip’s history is that he’s not afraid to move on from quarterbacks. I think that’s been well-documented. [I] do think he values some things from Nick Foles, as he should,” said Dilfer. “Nick is extremely tough. He plays very well with people around him. He is a guy who can process a lot of information quickly. He’s a great teammate. He’s an unselfish guy. He’s always been able to get the most from the people around him.

“I think the mistakes that have happened is when he’s trying to do too much. He’s a guy that when he just plays within the x’s and o’s, and every once in a while plays outside of them, he’s fine. He’s actually very efficient. It’s when he tries to go outside the x’s and o’s and put on the Superman cape so to speak, when he tries to do something exceptional, it gets him in trouble. But he’s a young player. I’m like the biggest apologist in the world for these young quarterbacks because I know how big the job is. And when they have success early on and then they hit some rough spells, everyone goes, ‘Aww, he stinks!’ Well no, he’s learning. He’s still learning every single Sunday he goes out there. And he’s seeing different looks and he’s seeing different experiences, more situations. So, I’m a big Nick Foles guy. I don’t see why you’d move on. But I do think we need to give these kids three, four years before we label ‘em. And he’s not even there yet.”

You can give the entire interview a listen here. 

WHAT YOU MISSED

Sheil’s bye-week report card for the offense is out. Few Dean’s List candidates this semester.

“We’ve gotta get one more and we dagger these guys.”  Kelly and Foles were mic’d up during Sunday’s win over the Giants.

The defensive line is getting the dirty work done, Kapadia writes.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

The Wall Street Journal did a study on the amount of face time coaches and quarterbacks get across the league. Turns out, the camera is on Kelly quite a bit.

All 32 NFL coaches and quarterbacks ranked by how often they are shown during a broadcast. http://t.co/i5kU6SUlPu pic.twitter.com/Trc4TkG74x

— WSJ Sports (@WSJSports) October 16, 2014

Ray Didinger brings us closer to Eagles founder and NFL commissioner Bert Bell.

From our seats in the end zone, we could see security guards rushing through the lower deck and helping to carry a man down the aisle. He was a heavy-set figure in a white shirt and he appeared to be unconscious. The police lifted him into the arms of the medical staff who put him in the ambulance and drove away.

An hour later we were riding home when we heard the news on the radio. The man we saw taken away in the ambulance was NFL commissioner Bert Bell. He was pronounced dead at University of Pennsylvania hospital, the victim of a heart attack. He was 65 years old.

The date was October 12, 1959. It was 55 years ago this week.

COMING UP

We’ll take a look at how the games this weekend can impact the Eagles.