Five Big-Picture Takeaways from Eagles’ Week 10 Loss vs Dolphins
By Somers Price
3.) There’s Something Wrong with How this Team Addresses Mistakes
Nov 15, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce (62) walks off the field after the game against the Miami Dolphins at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey G. Pittenger-USA TODAY Sports
No matter how the rest of the 2015 season plays out, it’s safe to say one of the major storylines that define year three of the Chip Kelly era will be the dramatic uptick in simple mistakes. Dropped passes, untimely penalties, bad snaps, and lack of communication all seem far more prevalent in 2015 than any other season under Kelly. All of the aforementioned issues reared their ugly heads on Sunday, as the Eagles out-sucked the Dolphins for 60 minutes and allowed a team whose season was on the brink eek out a one-point road victory.
Save for an impassioned few, there was an almost mechanical response to the team’s persistent woes. Kelly continues to fall back on ‘execution’ as a reason for the Eagles being unable to get out of their own way at times. The response to an illegal shift penalty that negated what should have been a go-ahead touchdown for Zach Ertz minimized the significance of the play dramatically. Miami had already done the Eagles a favor courtesy of a substitution error that gave them a free play. Riley Cooper, who was responsible for the pre-snap offensive penalty, brushed off the infraction like it wasn’t something the team should take care of without thinking every rep of the game.
Jason Kelce, who was reportedly livid with his performance, seems as if he is his only critic. Though it’s admirable for an adult to be hard on his own performance in the workplace, Kelce’s problems have persisted throughout the season. Many of the Eagles mistakes seem to be of the psychological variety. Though there is something to be said for the muscle memory developed through Kelly’s high-volume practices, it cannot be the best way to try to address issues that are of the cerebral variety. Kelly does not have to put his players on the psychiatrist couch and tap into their deep-rooted demons. The Eagles continue to compile losses as a result of these errors, however. Whatever the coaching staff has done up to this point isn’t working. Something must change or this team will be haunted by the ‘what-ifs?’ of 2015.
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