The shocking ineffectiveness of the Philadelphia Eagles running game has been one of the biggest storylines through the first two weeks of the 2015 NFL season. Recently-added running backs DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews have combined for just 15 rushing yards - that's right, 15 yards - through Week 2. Considering Murray led the league in rushing last season as a member of the rival Dallas Cowboys and Mathews, a former first-round pick, has posted two 1,000-yard seasons in his career, it's a figure and an issue that has already become quite alarming, even before the now 0-2 Eagles face off against one of the league's best defenses, the New York Jets, this coming Sunday. While some players have pointed to the play calling and head coach Chip Kelly doubled down on Wednesday on his assertion that it's about execution, a couple of Eagles players took it on themselves this week to point the finger of blame squarely in their own direction after the loss to the Cowboys.
"I played like (bleep)," Celek said Monday, according to Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News. Celek, a gritty veteran who has become more of a blocking tight end the last couple of seasons, and Kelce, the team's athletically and mentally dynamic center, both spoke to Bowen of "thinking too much" about what they were doing instead of just letting the game come to them.
"If you think (the defensive player) is going to go upfield, and he goes inside, and you don't react," Celek told Bowen, when asked what thinking too much means. Considering Celek is often asked to block larger defensive ends and quicker linebackers, it may not necessarily be fair to finger him as one of the perpetrators. And post-game tape showed Kelce, who is often utilized as a puller, getting caught in the trash at the line and just beyond.
Still, the product on the field has not been anywhere near good enough thus far, and for his part, Kelce said that the approach of the Dallas defensive line - slanting, stunting, staying in constant motion so as to confuse the Philly blockers - was not something unexpected. But he posited that perhaps while gameplanning to stop these defensive adjustments, the Eagles got themselves off their own game, suggesting that the team played "timid."
(You) lose track of what the basic fundamentals are, when you think too much," Kelce said, via Bowen.
With the vaunted Jets defense coming to town - Todd Bowles' new-look Gang Green crew have given up an average of 8.5 points per game over the first two weeks of the season, far and away the best mark in the league - the Eagles will need to get the running game rolling if they hope to have any chance of fending off an 0-3 start. Quarterback Sam Bradford hasn't looked awful, but he's looked unsettled and unsure of himself. Against a team with a secondary that boasts names like Revis, Cromartie and Pryor, it's likely in Philly's best interest to lean on the running game hard this weekend.
And if they can't, then it may be another three and a half hours of difficult viewing for Eagles fans and another week of scrutiny for Kelly.