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Ready to move on from an embarrassing 52-20 loss to the Denver Broncos, Chip Kelly and the Eagles were back at practice today.
The head coach spoke on Eagles' upcoming Week 5 opponent: the 0-4 New York Giants. He had some high praise for NYG's funny-face-making quarterback, Eli Manning.
From Eli, the one thing you marvel at is just how accurate he is. He may be the best deep‑ball thrower in the game. The other thing I don't think Eli gets credit for is just how tough he is. He gets hit, just gets up and has the same exact demeanor, then goes and continues to do the same exact thing. I think there's a real toughness to Eli, an extreme accuracy when he's throwing the football. There's times when I think everybody thinks, We're pretty close in our coverage, all of a sudden he fits the ball in there. Especially with balls down the field, that's what separates Eli from a lot of other quarterbacks, how accurate he is in the down‑the‑field throws.
The numbers for this year don't necessarily support the praise, although Manning has thrown for a 7th ranked 240 deep yards per PFF. His deep ball accuracy ranks 17th out of 21 QBs, however. Manning has attempted 20 deep passes (20+ yards down the field) and has managed to only complete 5 of them. 1 was dropped. That's good for a 30% accuracy.
Another issue that Manning has struggled is with turning the ball over. He's responsible for a league leading 9 interceptions thrown, plus 2 fumbles.
Manning's toughness is without question in the sense that he has started and played in every game the past 8 seasons for NY.
On the other side of the ball, Kelly praised the Giants' "attacking defense".
The lineup has been varied a little bit. They lost some guys at linebacker with [Dan] Connor going out. A couple different lineups from a defensive standpoint, at the linebacker and secondary level. I think the strength of their defense is their front with [Justin] Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul, Linval Joseph and Cullen Jenkins and those guys, inside up front. Part of it will be what you see from them in practice this week. They're getting Will Hill back, who was suspended. They only had two safeties active for last game. That will tell you a little bit about some of the depth issues they have in the secondary.
They're an attacking style defense. They're going to pressure you about 40% of the time. They bring it from different angles. Not always the same guy. You have to be heads up in terms of what you're doing protection guys. They do a good job of mixing their mans and their zones.
If you think the Eagles defense is bad, you're not wrong. But the Giants' defense sure isn't much better. In fact, NYG has surrendered more total points than the Eagles (138) with 146. Chip is just being courteously respectful to their opponents.
On a different note, there was an interesting question about Chip's history with Tom Coughlin. A few years ago, when Kelly was at UNH, Coughlin offered Kelly a position on his coaching staff. Chip Kelly as a New York Giant? Close, but no cigar.
The internal debate was it was a quality control position. I wasn't coaching a position. It was more that part of, when you get to a point where I was, doesn't matter what level you're at, you're designing offense, you're calling plays, coaching in an individual position. Even though it's a huge step up going from New Hampshire to the Giants, that was it.
I had all the respect in the world for coach [Tom Coughlin]. I think he's a Hall of Fame coach, won two Super Bowls. Would have been a great person to learn from. It was a great job, but it wasn't the right job at the right time.
These two losing record teams face off on Sunday in North Jersey "New York".