Chip Kelly Impressed With ‘Outstanding’ Defense
Photo by: Jeff Fusco.
The Giants scored a touchdown on their first drive of the game Monday night, driving 80 yards in eight plays and shredding the Eagles’ defense with little resistance.
From that point until the end of the game, New York picked up just 167 yards of offense, some of which came in the waning moments of what had turned into a blowout win for the Eagles.
Chip Kelly said after the game that he was impressed and pleased with what he saw from his defense, which has allowed just 24 points in back-to-back games against New Orleans and New York.
“I thought they were outstanding, especially after that first drive where they just come right down the field, went 80 yards and it’s 7-0 right off the bat,” Kelly said. “[The Giants] kind of neutralized the crowd, kind of hushed everybody up. I think they had 160 yards of offense after that on our defense.”
The Linc was certainly silenced after Eli Manning completed his first five passes on that opening drive, and completed his first 10 of the evening.
But on Manning’s eleventh pass, linebacker DeMeco Ryans contested the throw and wrenched an interception away from Manning’s target.
After getting beat in coverage on Manning’s game-opening touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr., Ryans redeemed himself immediately with the drive-halting interception, which would be the first of the Eagles’ three takeaways.
“I thought the play by DeMeco Ryans really kind of stemmed the tide,” Kelly said, “because they were moving the ball again on that drive, and then DeMeco made a nice play on that wheel route to kind of wrap the ball up.”
After Ryans’ interception halted New York’s offense, an interception by Nolan Carroll, which ended in six points for the Eagles, was the dagger that sank the Giants’ last vestige of momentum from their first drive.
The Eagles didn’t make any changes on defense in terms of play-calling, Kelly said.
“I think our guys just settled down,” he explained. “That interception by DeMeco was kind of key, and everybody almost took a deep breath and said, ‘All right.’ Then the rush started getting there, and then on the next series Nolan had the interception for the touchdown, and then our guys really started getting going.”
Here are some other highlights from Kelly’s post-game press conference.
— On Sam Bradford’s trio of interceptions against a depleted New York secondary.
“We had some miscommunication today on a couple of routes where the quarterback and the receiver weren’t on the same page. We have to clean that up. We’ve talked about that.
“[Bradford]’s getting more familiar in terms of what we’re doing, but we can’t continue to do that against a really good football team. We did it and got away with it today, but it’s not going to — in this league, you can’t do that.”
— On Bradford’s development through six games.
“I don’t have a continuum answer. I just know he needs to improve; we all need to improve on the offensive side of the ball.
“I think we’re starting to run the ball better as a group. We had some good play-action passes that really had some chunk plays for us. Obviously, the first touchdown to Coop, and we hit Miles [Austin] on a seam route.
“We did some good things, but we need to be able to finish, especially in the end zone.”
— On DeMarco Murray, who picked up his first 100-yard game of his time in Philadelphia.
“I think our offensive line is really starting to come together as a group, and the thing about DeMarco is he’s a downhill, physical runner. He runs behind his pads. If we can get him started, and I think we started to get some pushback at the line of scrimmage, we get him to the second level.”
— On the Eagles’ defensive line, which pressured Manning all night, sacking him four times.
“I thought Vinny [Curry] played really well; I thought [Fletcher Cox] played well, all those guys. It was really good to see — one thing you have to do really well to disrupt the rhythm and timing when he’s getting the ball out so quick is you have to get a push in the pass rush, and I thought we did that.”