Eagles place Brandon Hughes on short-term IR

Posted by Darin Gantt on September 18, 2013, 9:53 AM EDT AP

The Eagles are hurting for secondary help, and made a move Wednesday to address it.

The team announced it was placing cornerback Brandon Hughes on short-term injured reserve, and filling his roster spot by signing Roc Carmichael off the Texans’ practice squad.

Hughes had been part of final cuts, but was brought back when Bradley Fletcher was lost to a concussion. Hughes will be released from IR and become a free agent once he can pass a physical.

The short-term injured reserve is not the same thing as injured reserve with designation for return. The return designation is for players who will miss eight weeks and then return later in the season, but Hughes will be released by the Eagles as soon as he’s healthy.

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Chargers slow down Eagles, turnovers keep game close

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Eagles pull within seven after quick-strike drive

Posted by Mike Florio on September 19, 2013, 11:12 PM EDT

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The Eagles’ go-go offense may not be good at holding leads, but it’s pretty effective at erasing deficits.

Down 23-9 in the fourth quarter, the Eagles drove 78 yards in 1:21 to cut the margin in half.

The drive was capped by a 41-yard touchdown sprint from LeSean McCoy, who appeared to injure his leg late in the first half but returned in the third quarter.

The Eagles would be in position to win the game by a point if they hadn’t tried a goofy “swinging gate” fake after their first touchdown of the game.  As it stands, they need seven to tie.

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Report: Eagles nearly traded for Kaepernick, wanted Wilson

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Eagles follow touchdown with pointless “swinging gate” fake

Posted by Mike Florio on September 19, 2013, 9:06 PM EDT

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The latter days of the Jim Zorn era in D.C. were marred by a failed “swinging gate” fake on a field goal try.  The early days of the Chip Kelly era in Philly possibly have been marred by a “swinging gate” fake on an extra point attempt.

After an impressive drive by the Eagles ended in a touchdown pass by Mike Vick to Jason Avant, the Eagles lined up for the extra point, shifted most of the formation wide to the left, and snapped the ball to tight end Zach Ertz, who was supposed to get through the wall of blockers.

It failed.

So it’s now 10-6 instead of 10-7, and that squandered point could end up being the difference between a win and a loss.

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Philip Rivers shines in Philly, Chargers nip Eagles 33-30

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Eagles players are still slowing down the Chip Kelly offense

Posted by Mike Florio on September 18, 2013, 5:17 PM EDT

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As Eagles coach Chip Kelly tries to maximize the performance of his no-huddle, hurry-up offense, he needs maximum cooperation from his players.

So far, he’s not getting it.

Before Sunday’s unexpected loss to the Chargers, Sal Paolantonio of ESPN reported that Kelly has instructed his players not to leave the ball on the ground after a play but to hand it to an official.  During Sunday’s game, Kelly’s players consistently left the ball on the ground.

The biggest culprit was running back LeSean McCoy.  Based on a review of the full game broadcast, McCoy left the ball on the ground at least 10 times.

At one point in the second quarter, McCoy flipped the ball to the officials after a play.  Soon after that, he left it on the ground, stopped, retrieved it, and gave it to the officials.

If the change was the result of being reminded about it on the sidelines after consistently failing to give the ball to the officials during the first quarter, it didn’t stick.  He quickly resorted to leaving the ball on the ground after a play.

Others who left the ball on the ground at least once include running back Bryce Brown, receiver DeSean Jackson, quarterback Mike Vick, and receiver Jason Avant.

While it doesn’t create a major delay, every second counts in Kelly’s go-go offense.  And for Kelly, who wants the system to run a certain way, it has to be maddening that the guys aren’t doing what they expressly have been told to do.

It’s unclear when they were first told to do it this way.  Either Kelly has been harping on it throughout the offseason program, training camp, and the preseason and they continue to ignore him, or he has just realized only recently that time was being wasted by leaving the ball on the ground instead of getting it in an official’s hands.

Regardless, the Eagles could be getting even more plays called if the players start doing what Kelly wants them to do.

It’s unclear how many more snaps they would have had on Sunday against the Chargers.  As it stands, Philly had only 58.  San Diego had 79 plays from scrimmage, despite often draining the play clock in a no-huddle approach while quarterback Philip Rivers made changes based on the pre-snap look.

The Chargers ended up having the ball more than 40 minutes, too.  Kelly has said that he’s not concerned about a 40-20 split, as long as the Eagles get their snaps in.  On Sunday, it was less like the UCLA game Kelly mentioned in August and more like the far bigger NFL game in which the Buffalo K-gun offense was stymied both in time of possession and snaps by a grind-it-out Giants team.

While the Chargers did much more throwing than grinding on Sunday in Philly, they came up with an approach that others surely will copy in the coming weeks.

Starting on Thursday night, when the Chiefs and Andy Reid come to town.

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Freeney doesn’t think quarterbacks will survive in Eagles offense

Posted by Mike Florio on September 19, 2013, 10:36 AM EDT

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Eagles quarterback Mike Vick had a hard time staying healthy in Andy Reid’s offense.  Vick could have an even harder time staying healthy in Chip Kelly’s offense.

That was Chargers linebacker Dwight Freeney’s biggest takeaway after facing the Eagles on Sunday.

“The problem is with that offense, to be honest with you, is the quarterback position and the pounding the quarterback
takes with that and it’s not college anymore,” Freeney tells Erik Kuselias in an interview to be aired Thursday on NBCSN’s Pro Football Talk.   “And it’s going to be very interesting to see if a team can actually have a starting quarterback or backup quarterback last through the whole entire year with this type of athlete — not a college athlete — you’re talking about a guy who may be 300 pounds, running a 4.8-whatever it is, hitting your quarterback every time he carries out a fake, whether he has the ball or not. Will the quarterback to be able to last the whole year? That’s the question.”

In Freeney’s opinion, the answer to that question will be no.

“They don’t really stress protection,” Freeney said. “They stress more or less, you know what, we’re going to confuse, this, that and the other.”

And they’re always going to move fast. Very fast. So fast that a nine-play drive that tied Sunday’s game against the Chargers late took only 80 seconds off the clock — and left 111 for the Chargers to drive down the field and win it.

But it’s still not as fast as Kelly would like. If the Eagles can cram in more plays, and if Vick and receiver DeSean Jackson can connect on a few more long throws, the man who threw for 428 yards on 58 snaps against San Diego could throw for over 600 yards.

If he can remain in one piece.

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Brandon Flowers questionable for matchup with Eagles

Posted by Josh Alper on September 18, 2013, 12:11 PM EDT

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The Chiefs are headed to Philadelphia for a date with the Eagles on Thursday night and they’re not sure whether their top cornerback will be able to help them try to win it.

Brandon Flowers is listed as questionable on the injury report for the game after limited participation in practice this week because of a knee injury. Stopping the Eagles offense will be difficult enough with all hands on deck, so losing Flowers would be a pretty big blow to the Chiefs’ defensive plans. If he is out, Sean Smith would likely get the call to shadow DeSean Jackson.

Tight end Anthony Fasano is unlikely to play after being listed as doubtful with an ankle injury. One of his potential replacements, Travis Kelce, is listed as questionable. If both can’t go, they’ll be down to Sean McGrath and Kevin Brock at tight end.

Tackle Branden Albert and defensive end Mike DeVito both participated fully in practice and are probable to play.

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