Eagles Offense Historic In Chip Kelly’s First Season

Nick Foles and LeSean McCoy were nothing short of historic this season as the Eagles won the NFC East division championship in Chip Kelly's first year at the helm.

Before the NFC East Division championship shirts and caps were distributed to the players in the locker room, Chip Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles tied the bow on a historic season.

By virtue of the Eagles 24-22 win over the Cowboys on Sunday night, for the first time since 2010 the Eagles are NFC East champions and will host a home playoff game on Saturday night at Lincoln Financial Field against the New Orleans Saints.

While Kelly's single goal has been scoring points and winning football games this season, the offensive innovator is now the first Eagles head coach to win the division in his first season. 

Kelly's assault on the record books doesn't end there, though. 

While there were plenty of misnomers about Kelly's offense prior to the season opener back on September 9th against the Washington Redskins, at it's core, all along it was a scheme that is based around the power running game. It's safe to say LeSean McCoy benefited from playing in the high octane, run oriented attack. 

McCoy, in his fifth season, finished with 1,607 rushing yards on the season which supplanted Wilbert Montgomery for the franchise's single season rushing mark but it also earned him the 2013 rushing title. 

However, McCoy wasn't about to stop there. 

After first sidestepping Montgomery's record set in 1979, McCoy later surpassed Brian Westbrook's total yards from scrimmage in a single season record with 2,012.

Going into Sunday night, McCoy had a 137-yard lead over Matt Forte of the Bears for the NFL rushing lead. Cowboys back DeMarco Murray, the only other starting running back still playing, was more than 400 yards behind McCoy.

McCoy is the first Eagle to lead the NFL in rushing since Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren had 1,146 yards in 12 games in 1949. Van Buren also led the NFL in rushing in 1945 (832 yards), 1947 (1,008) and 1948 (945). 

Still, the franchise running back realizes that individual accolades are secondary.

"With the stats and the records, none of that stuff means anything, if you don't win in the end," McCoy said after Sunday's win. "That's the most important thing."

Shady wasn't the only Eagle leaving their mark on the record books.

Quarterback Nick Foles, already tying the record for touchdowns in a single game with seven against the Oakland Raiders earlier this season, joined McCoy as the only pair of teammates to finish the season as the league's leading rusher and most efficient passer in NFL history.

Foles finished the season with a league best 118.7 and finished the season as the quarterback to throw the most passing attempts in league history while finishing with two or fewer interceptions all season. The second-year quarterback concluded his breakout 2013 campaign with 27 touchdowns and two interceptions. 

As a unit the Eagles offense finished with a franchise best 6,676 yards from scrimmage.  

Kelly doesn't seem to care about leaving his mark on history, but the accolades certainly sit nicely alongside a ten-win season and division championship in one's first year as an NFL head coach. 

Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.