The Philadelphia Eagles quickly have established themselves as football's most aggressive offense in the dawn of the Chip Kelly era.
They were perhaps too aggressive in the final minutes of their 33-30 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.
With 2:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, Michael Vick completed a 25-yard pass to DeSean Jackson to set up the Eagles with a first-and-10 from San Diego's 14. Most coaches would slow things down at that point in an attempt to burn off the clock. Instead, Kelly called three passing plays, spending just 41 seconds of game time.
The Eagles kicked a field goal to tie the game, and Philip Rivers took over at his own 21, armed with two timeouts and 1:45 on the clock. In other words, more than enough time for the Chargers to answer with a field goal of their own. They did just that.
"I was trying to score; that's all on me, that's my call," Kelly told WYSP-FM on Monday (via Philly.com). "I didn't want it to leave it in the hands of, it's a tie ballgame. If you score, you're up four. You got to drive a length of the field to try to score a touchdown.
"When you look at it in hindsight, maybe we should have bled the clock and not giving them enough time to come down and do it. You learn from those situations," Kelly went on. "But we were trying to score seven, not three. We felt like we had three, and just thought we had the opportunity to put one in there, and we didn't get it. We didn't capitalize."
Kelly also acknowledged he was unclear on the rules when he inserted Nick Foles in that final sequence after Vick suffered an injury on his first-down throw. If the Eagles had used a timeout, Vick wouldn't have had to sit out a play. Instead, Foles came in cold and threw an incomplete pass before Vick returned.
Asked if he would call a timeout if given a second chance, Kelly replied, "Yeah."
All part of the learning curve for a rookie in the NFL.
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