The Philadelphia Eagles offense looked its best in years on Monday against the Washington Redskins. With new head coach Chip Kelly executing the unit, the Eagles operated under a fast-paced scheme that ended up running 53 plays in the first half alone. That quick pace still was not fast enough for Kelly's standards.
The Eagles ran a play every 22.2 seconds. They put up 322 yards of total offense in the first half with a 26-7 lead against the Redskins. That was not good enough for the head coach.
"I felt like it was slow. I'm not joking. We need to do a better job," Kelly said, via ESPN.com. "We left the ball on the ground too much. We didn't get the ball to the officials. We could have sped things up from a process in between plays. That's something we need to work on."
Those who have watched Kelly's work with the University of Oregon know the head coach can get the team moving much quicker. Oregon became famous for their up-temp offense, now becoming a norm in college football. However, it is relatively new in the NFL and clearly caught the Redskins' defense off guard. Linebacker Brian Orakpo told reporters the team had to make plenty of adjustments at halftime.
"Just the way our front line was aligned," Orakpo said. "We changed that -- guys playing more in the box. What they try to do, they try to spread you out and kind of leave the box wide open. So we just made a few adjustments to get more guys in the box so we could play the run a little better."
Center Jason Kelce was tasked with dictating the speed of the offense. He believes the team is capable of operating faster. They have worked much quicker in practice before. Kelce notes the team took their feet off the gas pedal in the second half and must work on keeping up the pace.
Wide receiver DeSean Jackson was loving the quick pace of the game. The Eagles came out firing on all cylinders as Jackson finished with 104 yards and a touchdown. The sixth-year receiver was clearly having fun, but wants to move things even faster.
"During practice we run like 100-plus plays. It was a long first quarter and I think in the first half we had it close to 60 plays so we're prepared and we're ready to go... Second half we slowed it down a little bit and we weren't able to get things going like we had in the first half, but as long as we're able to not take our foot of the pedal and continue to do great things, I think the sky's the limit for this team," Jackson said.
Michael Vick worked from under center with ease, showing plenty of options in the playbook. Jackson could be right, the sky might just be the only limit for this team.
