Eagles Wake-Up Call: Three Kelly Leftovers

Below are three items that stood out from Chip Kelly’s day-after press conference.

1. I’ve received several questions on Twitter about injuries, but Kelly didn’t provide much information on that front.

“I do not have an update right now,” he said.

Pressed again later, Kelly said: “Mychal [Kendricks] said he felt good, didn’t think there was anything big-time wrong with him. But we’ll see. Jason [Peters] said he’s going to play. But every time Jason’s had anything, he’s told me he’s going to play. But the one thing about Jason is he has played. He hasn’t missed any time since I’ve been here.”

Kendricks and safety Earl Wolff both suffered knee injuries Sunday. Peters first suffered a head injury and then had a quad issue that knocked him out of the game.

According to multiple reports, Howie Roseman said on his radio show that Wolff will be out multiple weeks, but the injuries to Peters and Kendricks are not believed to be serious. The Eagles return to practice today at the NovaCare Complex.

Against Green Bay, Najee Goode filled in for Kendricks; Allen Barbre replaced Peters; and Patrick Chung replaced Wolff.

2. Kelly was asked what’s keeping him from naming Nick Foles the starter.

“I think what we’ve done for the last two weeks has worked for us pretty good, so we’re going to stick with that formula,” he said. “It’s got us 16 touchdowns, no interceptions and two wins, so why would we change?”

Earlier in the season, the risk in playing Foles was that he might not give the team the best chance to win. Or at least that’s what the coaches decided out of training camp. But that’s no longer an issue given the way he has played. Foles is going to be the starter. But Kelly doesn’t have to make that official until Michael Vick is healthy. Vick is not expected to practice today, and the Eagles have a bye next week.

In other words, don’t expect Kelly to provide clarity any time soon. But it would be a monumental upset if Vick took the job back from a healthy Foles.

3. Alex Henery missed a 39-yard field goal Sunday. It was his fifth miss of the season. Kelly didn’t exactly go full Milli Vanilli, but did say blame it on the wind.

“When you watch it on tape, he hit it right down the middle,” Kelly said. “I talked to Alex about it. He thought he had it. We talked to Donnie Jones about it. He said, ‘Coach, I saw it go right off his foot. It was heading right down the middle toward the goal post, then it got pushed with the wind.’

“Their kicker had the exact same situation. Blew it the same way. Probably got to make a little bit more adjustment for the wind. But I think he hit is pretty good. When you watch the initial copy, it took off, was heading down the middle. Then it seemed like it got pushed with the wind.”

Only two kickers have missed more field goals than Henery this season. He’s 5-for-9 on kicks from 40 yards or more. I actually buy Kelly’s explanation about the wind, but Henery has not had a good year.

WHAT YOU MISSED

Game review: Thoughts on Foles, LeSean McCoy and the rest of the offense.

Good job by T-Mac digging deeper into the replay issue and why the Eagles didn’t challenge a couple calls Sunday.

Zone Read, the Eagles-Packers day-after piece, focuses on DeMeco Ryans’ leadership, five thoughts, some No-22, game balls and more.

Kelly used a Warren Buffett anecdote to prepare his team for Sunday’s game.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com has some interesting numbers on the Eagles’ success through play-action:

They have arguably the best play-action passing game in the league. They used it for 14 of his 18 attempts Sunday, and at 78 percent, that’s the most frequent use of play-action in an NFL game since at least 2006. He completed nine of those passes, including all three of his touchdowns, for 172 yards. Six of his 10 touchdown passes over the past two games have come via play-action. Foles’ QBR on play-action plays this season is 95.3, trailing only Peyton Manning (95.4) among qualified starters.

Peter King of The MMQB has the Eagles all the way up to 10th in his power rankings:

Nick Foles in 2013: 16 touchdown passes, no interceptions, 132.5 rating. This is getting ridiculous.

COMING UP

We’ll be down at NovaCare to talk to Pat Shurmur, Billy Davis and the players.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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