Image Courtesy of The Associated Press
Alex Smith and the Kansas City Chiefs held the ball for nearly 40 minutes against the Eagles on Thursday night. Offensiely, the Eagles must sustain longer drives or this could devolve into a long season for The Birds.
Chip Kelly may gloss over the importance of time of possession, but it's impossible to overlook the amount of time the Philadelphia Eagles defense has been on the field over the course of the last two weeks, both crushing home losses.
The Eagles barnstormed out of the gate against the Washington Redskins in week one by running a total of 53 plays in the first half en route to a 33-27 over the defending NFC east division champions. In the subsequent two games against the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs the Eagles mustered a total of only 58 and 63 plays respectively.
Given the stage in the rebuilding process of Bill Davis' defense, the Eagles simply will not be competitive this season by running so few offensive plays.
It was especially evident on Thursday night when the defense allowed the Chiefs to convert on 31% of their third down opportunities thus extending drives especially late in the game.
"Right now we're not running enough plays on offense. We're turning the ball over too much offensively," Kelly said. "We're not executing the way we're supposed to execute, and that's what we have to do to be able to keep our defense off the field."
Michael Vick's three turnovers surely payed a role Thursday's offensive woes and inability to sustain a drive or build any momentum.
Still, the head coach is sticking by his 32-year old staring quarterback.
"I thought Mike played OK," Kelly said. "He has played better. But it's always a combination unfortunately. It's not always on one guy."
As much as Kelly wants to dispel the notion that time of possession doesn't matter, the onus is on he and his Ferrari-like offense to ensure the defense is on the field much less than the 39:09 it spent chasing Alex Smith and the Chiefs on Thursday night.
Or else, it could be a very long season and not just in terms of how long the defense is on the field.
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.
