Philadelphia Eagles: Chip Kelly lost this weekend too

Welp, it’s official: The Philadelphia Eagles are losers.

Yup, we all knew it would happen eventually, and today was the day; Nick Sirianni‘s perfect-as-a-fresh-snow record was dashed by those darn San Francisco 49ers, who wouldn’t know snow if it bit them in their Levi’s.

A bummer? Most definitely. It would have been darn cool to see the team win out and become the first team in NFL history to go 17-0 in the regular season, but alas, it just wasn’t meant to be.

But hey, don’t feel too bad for the Birds. While Philly did have a chance to pull out a win in their home opener, the momentum was in SF’s endzone since they went up 7-0 heading into the half. There’s a former Philadelphia Eagles head coach who suffered a brutal loss with mere moments left in a game that may have just dashed any chance of another season with his team.

That’s right; we’re heading over to Westwood to check in on our old pal Chip Kelly.

Chip Kelly suffered an even uglier loss than the Philadelphia Eagles.

For a two-week period, Chip Kelly’s UCLA Bruins looked like a surprise contender in the Pac-12.

Despite entering the season sans a spot in the top-25, Kelly’s club burst out of the gates white-hot, picking up a commanding 38-27 win over the LSU Tigers, UCLA went into Week 3 with lofty expectations and incredible momentum.

For Bruins young and old, this was a massively pleasant surprise. UCLA hasn’t been truly competitive in the Pac-12 since 2015, when Jim Mora was still calling plays on the sidelines of the Rose Bowl, so finally having the offense looking good, dare I say Oregon-esque, felt darn good.

Factor in USC having already fired their head coach and the rest of the Pac-12 South being meh to bad and UCLA’s path to the division championship game was clear: Get through the regular season with no more than one loss and then take care of Kelly’s former University on the national stage.

Tricky? Sure. UCLA’s path to the championship game wasn’t a cakewalk, as they have to play a pair of teams – Arizona State and Oregon – ranked within the AP Top-25, but after losing way more games than they won under Kelly through his run with the team, a taste of victory felt darn good.

… at least until the team dropped a heartbreaker to Fresno State that all but eliminates any dreams of a trip to the NCAA Playoffs.

The ending to the certified shootout was incredibly familiar to fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. Kelly’s team got ahead, his defense got gassed, and at the end of the game, with mere seconds left to play, the Bruins’ defense dropped back into “sticks” coverage and essentially allowed Fresno State a free reception from which to get a receiver into space and score a game-clenching touchdown.

Needless to say, as an Eagles fan who studied at UCLA, this weekend has not been ideal.

As crazy as it may sound, I was excited to see Chip Kelly resurface at UCLA after a weird one-year run in San Francisco. I always wondered how this tenure would have shaken out if players like Eric Rowe and Jordan Hicks were afforded longer looks in South Philly, but after watching the 57-year-old head coach continue to make the same mistakes a half-decade later, it’s clear the Philadelphia Eagles were right to replace him with Doug Pederson in 2017… even if he too has since been replaced by Nick Sirianni. Eh, at least we got a Super Bowl trophy out of the deal.