October 05, 2015
For the first time in his brief NFL career, Chip Kelly is wearing two hats this season, but he really only needs one – a dunce cap.
Is it possible to perform more ineptly than the Eagles did in a 23-20 loss Sunday to the Washington Redskins? What was worse, the game plan or the people running it? And here’s the biggest question: Who’s doing a worse job right now, the coach or the GM?
Since Kelly is both of those people, he deserves twice the blame for this shockingly inept group of athletes currently masquerading as an NFL team. The Eagles are not just 1-3 at the quarter-mark of the season; they are the most dysfunctional, least entertaining club in recent memory.
The coach’s explanation for this fiasco is as unfathomable as the team’s performance. The offense cannot convert third downs, and the defense cannot stop them. Both units look lost. After the game, Kelly kept using one word to diagnose the malaise – “execution”. He repeated that term in his weekly appearance on my WIP radio show Monday.
His choice of words calls to mind a famous quote many years ago by then-Tampa Bay coach John McKay when a reporter asked him about his team’s execution.
“I’m in favor of it,” he said.
In the aftermath of another ugly loss, Kelly is facing a firing squad of his own right now, both in a national media thrilled at his spectacular failure this season and in a fan base livid at his shortcomings in the front office and on the sidelines.
The biggest problem is an offensive line riddled with injuries and ineffectiveness. The best lineman, Jason Peters, was looking all of his 33 years before going down with a quad injury. First-round draft pick Lane Johnson has not been not playing like one. And center Jason Kelce called his own performance Sunday “a disgrace.” No one argued the point.
Addressing the obvious holes at the two guard positions, I asked Kelly if he honestly, truly believed that he had enough talent on that line to execute his game plan. He quickly said yes – which raises the total of people who agree with that position to one.
The truth is, almost all of Kelly’s acquisitions since he wrested control of personnel away from ex-GM Howie Roseman has been misfires. Cornerback Byron Maxwell was mediocre, at best, before suffering a quad injury Sunday. Linebacker Kiko Alonso is injured again, too. Running back DeMarco Murray has hurt both his hamstring and his pride.
In fact, Murray finally admitted he isn’t touching the ball enough – eight carries for 36 yards against Washington – but he quickly added that he isn’t calling the plays.
That’s where Kelly the coach comes in, and he’s not doing any better than Kelly the GM. His team has not been ready to play in three of the four games, his play-calling has been abysmal except for a few brief flurries of production and his defense collapsed in the final minutes against the Redskins.
Was the defense tired? Not at all, he said, despite the unit being on the field for 79 plays and 42 minutes. Did he pick the wrong kicker, Caleb Sturgis, who blew four points? No, the available kickers right now are all pretty bad. Was the team ready? Hell, yeah. They practiced well all week.
It’s not the GM, and it’s not the coach, Kelly believes. It’s just a matter of execution. What the coach (and the GM) doesn’t seem to understand is that there is no more room for error. He has to be right about turning around the Eagles, and soon. After his winter power play, failure is not an option.
***
As the new season begins for the Flyers on Thursday in Tampa, it is essential that they immediately reinforce a new culture that promises success in the very near future. The last thing that long-suffering fans need is more of the same hollow promises by chairman Ed Snider and more playoff misses like last season.
With promising new coach Dave Hakstol leading the way, here are four important changes fans need to see immediately:
• Offense -- Throughout their 41-year drought, the Flyers have played a grinding, defense-first style that served them well for a long time, but no more. They averaged 2.59 goals a game last season, 21st in the NHL. GM Ron Hextall’s job as a goalie was to stop goals, but his success now hignes on how well his team scores them.
• Claude Giroux, superstar -- Since Peter Laviolette called Giroux “the best hockey player on the planet” four years ago, Giroux has never come close to that platitude. In fact, he has been not much more than ordinary – with long scoring droughts and underwhelming leadership for a captain. At 27, Giroux needs to start living up to the hype.
• Success in shootouts -- Because of the backward thinking of the organization, the Flyers have been the worst shootout team in the NHL since the inception of the tie-breaking rule 10 years ago. Is it asking too much for them to win half of these shooting contests? No, it’s not.
• Focus on the future, not the past -- Have the Flyers erected enough statues yet of their Stanley-Cup heroes of four decades ago? No more Broad-Street Bullies tributes, please. They should keep all of these old relics in the history books, where they belong. It’s time for some new heroes, and a new Stanley Cup, too.
With each new sports season comes new hope, but Flyers fans need more than lip service. These loyal patrons have been paying 21st-century prices; now it’s time for a 21st-century team.
***
The Phillies just completed an atrocious season – one of the worst in their 125-year history. It is very important, in this age of PR spin, to speak the truth about this spectacular failure, and to keep speaking it until the organization gets the message that the fans deserve better.
Since outgoing president Pat Gillick’s proclamation before the season that the Phils would not contend for at least a couple of years, many media reactionaries have spent months in search of silver linings, and they have found some logical ones. Owner John Middleton has emerged as a strong public voice, Andy MacPhail is a promising new president, and players like Maikel Franco and Aaron Nola represent hope.
But the real story of these pathetic 2015 Phillies is that they were a colossal bore, worthy of scant attention in a sports landscape already blighted by the putrid Sixers and disappointing Flyers. The Phils had their worst attendance in Citizens Bank Park history, equally dreadful TV and radio ratings and finished last in the NL East with 99 losses.
Optimism is much easier to proclaim than to deliver on, and the Phillies right now cannot interpret fan silence as anything more than apathy. The team needs to do more than wait for the influx of young players to mature. They need to act boldly in the free-agent market. Above all, they need to acquire a No. 1 starting pitcher.
The Phillies definitely have the money – especially with a new TV contract kicking in next season – and they have a fan base ready to jump back into those empty seats at the first sign of real progress. But despite the current rosy spin, they need to act quickly and decisively to win back fan money and attention.
If you ask fans what they enjoyed most about the 2015 Phillies, they will tell you it was not an addition, but a subtraction. The long-overdue departure of GM Ruben Amaro Jr. is the one thing the Phillies did this season that truly won fan acclaim.
Now it’s time to do more – a lot more.
And finally ...
• Fox TV thought it was a good idea to insult the intelligence of NFL fans Sunday by assigning its worst broadcast team to the Eagles-Redskins game. Dick Stockton and David Diehl actually called that ugly, penalty-marred mess “a great game.” Stockton needs to retire, and Diehl needs his mic shut off – permanently.
• The Phillies drew 13,238 fans to a game against their most hated rival Mets last week at Citizens Bank Park – less than four seasons after selling out every seat of every game. You know how people have to hit rock bottom before they begin their ascension? This was the bottom, right? Please?
• Why are Philadelphia sports fans actually rooting for Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley to win another championship in Los Angeles? Do people really want to see our baseball heroes douse each other with champagne while wearing Dodger uniforms? Not me. I hope they lose, as soon as possible.
• Speaking of former Phillies, am I the only one who was highly entertained by the horrible behavior of Jonathan Papelbon and Jayson Werth in the final days of a shockingly bad Washington season? These two talented but obnoxious players got exactly what they deserved – failure on the field and in the clubhouse.
• Congratulations to Larry Brown, the former Sixer coach who has pulled into the lead as biggest phony in American sports. The SMU coach took a break from preaching about playing the right way last week after receiving a nine-game suspension for cheating and lying. This is his third NCAA sanction. The right way, indeed.
