PHILADELPHIA -- Normally, when the Eagles’ running game isn’t productive, head coach Chip Kelly writes it off as a result of the opponent’s defensive approach. Kelly immediately points out the ways the Eagles took advantage of that approach by throwing the ball.
Not this time. The Eagles’ ground game struggled against Carolina Monday night because of the Eagles, not the Panthers.
“We didn’t execute,” Kelly said Thursday. “We didn’t stay on blocks as well as we can stay on blocks. We didn’t run the way we need to run. It wasn’t a schematic thing. It was just us executing on the offensive side of the ball. We did some good things, don’t get me wrong, but I think we can be better.”
That presents an interesting conundrum as the Eagles prepare for the Green Bay Packers this weekend. Last season, LeSean McCoy ran for 155 yards at Lambeau Field. On Monday night, McCoy ran for just 19 yards on 12 carries. His 1.6-yard-per-carry average was below 2.0 for the third game this season. In previous games, the opponent was stacking the box to stop the run. Or the Eagles’ offensive line was adjusting to changes caused by injuries.
In this game, center Jason Kelce and left guard Evan Mathis were back on the field. All signs pointed to a big game for McCoy. It didn’t turn out that way.
“We tried to be balanced last week,” Kelce said. “Obviously, it didn’t work out. We were very frustrated in the run game.”
Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur put it down to the presence of linebacker Luke Kuechly.
“We're going to try to be patient and run the football,” Shurmur said. “Then there were times when we had some creases where all of a sudden Luke showed up. I just think, generally speaking, when you leave some meat on the bone in the running game, we can finish better. There are just little things each guy can do better. Then you can have a game where you're back effective again.”
In an effort to improve their run defense, the Packers moved linebacker Clay Matthews from outside to the inside of their 3-4 scheme. It’s hard to gauge how successful that was in their one game doing it. The Packers jumped out to such a big lead on the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Bears were forced to throw the ball in an effort to catch up.
“Chicago got down so quickly, maybe their mindset turned into, `We’ve got to throw the ball more to get back into this game,’ “ Kelly said. “They [the Packers] did play better inside. We only have a small sample of it. You could see improvement on the tape, though.”
If Matthews is appearing in running lanes the way Kuechly did Monday night, the Eagles are simply going to have to block him better. Controlling the ball and keeping Aaron Rodgers on the sideline is paramount in this game.
“Sometimes we had it blocked up right, and we didn’t hit it,” Kelly said. “Other times there was nowhere for the back to go. Either we don’t block it right or we don’t run it right.”