Kelly Makes No Excuse For Letting NFC East Slip Through Eagles' Hands
By Kevin McGuire
Three weeks ago it looked as though the Philadelphia Eagles were going to make a serious push for a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs while wearing the NFC East crown for a second straight season. Instead, the Eagles now enter the final week of the 2014 season with nothing but pride to play for, and head coach Chip Kelly intends to go all out in order to end the season with a win.
The Eagles are on the road for the final game of the season, this time against the New York Giants. Victors by a decision of 27-0 earlier in the season, the Eagles now look to avoid allowing their last remaining division rival to exact revenge. The Eagles went 3-0 in NFC East play before tripping up at home against the Dallas Cowboys two weeks ago and losing Saturday afternoon at Washington. The Giants have been playing well down the stretch, perhaps once again doing just enough to save the job of head coach Tom Coughlin. Forget about giving younger players a chance to play on the field this weekend. Kelly intends to play 60 minutes with his first team starters and get the win against the Giants.
“Our sole focus right now is the New York Giants,” Kelly said this week (via PhiladelphiaEagles.com) when asked about the possibility of using this weekend’s regular season finale to evaluate some younger players before the offseason officially begins. “We don't say, ‘Hey, the offseason is coming up, so let's start planning for the offseason;’ it's, ‘Let's plan for the last game of the season,’ which is against New York. It's a good football team that we're going to go play. They've won three straight games.”
The Eagles let the NFC East slip through their fingers the past three weeks. Three straight losses to Seattle, Dallas and Washington was something few would have envisioned happening following the Eagles’ victory in Dallas on Thanksgiving. A loss to the Seahawks was somewhat excusable, but the loss to the Cowboys stung like a hornet. The loss to Washington was nothing short of a punch to the gut. There is plenty of blame to share for why the Eagles are not playing in the postseason for a second straight season under Kelly, and the head coach does deserve his fair share of criticism. He’s not making excuses though.
“We didn't do enough,” Kelly said (via PhiladelphiaEagles.com). “We didn't win enough games against the right opponents to put ourselves in the playoffs. We knew the rules of engagement before the season started. To sit here after it is over and say, ‘Let's change the rules so this can happen,’ that's just the way it is.”
The Eagles may indeed win 10 games this year, but considering the team was a home win away from wrapping up the NFC East and now is entering the final week of the season locked out of the playoffs, the 2014 Eagles will ultimately be viewed as a failure. Progress was not made from year one to year two under Kelly, for various reasons. Year three may prove to be a critical one for Kelly as head coach of the Eagles, but for now he is simply focused on winning one more game.
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Kevin McGuire is a Philadelphia area sports writer covering the Philadelphia Eagles and college football. McGuire is a member of the FWAA and National Football Foundation. Follow McGuire on Twitter @KevinOnCFB. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
