Kelly Talks Foles, Sanchez And the Offense

The word Chip Kelly used to describe his team’s offensive performance Friday night was sloppy.

The starters stayed in the game for three series, and the results were ugly: two turnovers and a punt.

“The second one was 2nd-and-4,” Kelly said, when asked about Nick Foles’ interceptions. “We didn’t get a great seal. It was a naked [bootleg] play. Those are the times where we’ve just gotta make the decision to throw the ball away. Let’s not force it in there. We’re in real good field position on their side of the ball. On the other one, I think there was a twist up front. There was some pressure. Again, they were playing zone defense. We’ve just gotta be smarter with the football.”

Asked if Foles was pressured too much, Kelly added: “He got a little pressure… on the one third down. But obviously when it’s third and… the penalty situation hurt us too. I think the one time it was third and a real lot. We knew it going in, the officials were gonna call it closer. And we were aware of it. Both teams were playing with the same group so we knew that we’ve gotta really work on the penalty aspect of it. From the penalty things, we were sloppy. From the turnover aspect, we were really sloppy.”

Foles finished 6-for-9 for 44 yards and two INTs. Given what he showed in 10 starts last year, his performance obviously needs to be put in the proper context.

“It’s one preseason game,” Kelly said. “He got X amount of snaps and we’ll make corrections and go from there. But until you really look at things, did a protection break down? Did he have a chance to set his feet? Did the receiver run the right route? A lot of different things that get involved in that.”

Meanwhile, Mark Sanchez played well in the second quarter, completing seven of 10 attempts for 79 yards. There are still three preseason games to go, but at this point it’d be an upset if he didn’t win the backup job.

“I thought Mark did a really nice job,” Kelly said. “I was really impressed with the work he did in the second quarter. I thought he threw the ball on time, put the ball in there. He made a mistake on the one play at the goal line where he pulled it and then tried to throw it out. I think we were at the 1-yard line, but we got in the next play so it didn’t really come back to hurt us. But I thought he played calm. He had poise about him, put the ball on the money. The ball he threw to [Zach] Ertz down the middle I thought was a really well-timed throw. I was really happy with him.”