If Chip Kelly is looking for a reason his team came up so small in a big game against the Vikings, all he needs to do is look in the mirror.
Chip Kelly lost this game on the very first play.
That's when he decided to implement a day-long series of squib kicks, apparently because he was afraid of the prowess of Vikings return man rookie Cordarelle Patterson.
I have one question for the coach. If he was that scared of this guy, why did he defer after he won the coin toss?
Kelly's move sent a message to both his team - and the Vikings. It told his special teams he did not trust them to play Patterson straight up. And it was a slap in the face of Matt Cassell and the Vikings offense, which was playing without All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson as well as his backup. Instead the Vikes were forced to start untested Matt Asiata.
One final thing about this bizarre tactic: Alex Henery kicked a 51-yard field goal that sailed into the net behind the goal posts, but he apparently is unable to kick the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff.
Sure there were lots of other things that went wrong yesterday.
One week after donning his Superman cape in the snow and running wild against the vaunted Detroit Lions defense, LeSean McCoy got all of eight carries as Kelly went into full Andy Reid mode.
The Birds' defense was atrocious, barely even bothering to show up. The safety play, a season-long headache, continues to be a boil on the Birds' butt. With Earl Wolff still on the injured list, the Eagles have been forced to play Patrick Chung. The results have been the same all year. Out of position, burned and failing to make tackles.
Nick Foles threw for a ton of yards, but he didn't really impress, and he again opened the window on the discussion about whether or not he is Kelly's quarterback of the future.
Was this a case of the Sports Illustrated jinx, after Foles graced the cover of the regional edition of the mag. Uh, no. This was a case of a team that is not that good, that has gotten tons of breaks all season long, playing in a horrific division (see Cowboys, Redskins, Giants) finally coming down to earth.
With a thud.
The Eagles still have a legitimate shot at the playoffs. But they are not a good team. Not even close. Not after that effort that put out in Minnesota.
It was that kind of day. Thank god for the Cowboys.
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