The Chip Kelly Eagles: Winning Awfully

Win Or Lose

Second time in eight days where the Eagles win by 20, at home, with a game with a weak start, terrible quarterback turnovers, and an opponent that just looked like they couldn't beat a sack of kittens. With the win, the team is 3-3, in first place of a dumpster fire of a division, and trying to tell themselves that once the offense stops derping around, Everything Will Be Fine. Without, well, much in the way to tell yourself *why* the offense will stop derping around.

Is there good stuff to think about here? Sure. Nolan Carroll is the best CB on the team right now, which makes you wonder why the hell he couldn't play at the end of last year, when Bradley Fletcher was destroying the season. The team's deep talent evaluation seems to be doing good things, with contributions coming from players like EJ Biggers and Najeh Goode; that also speaks to the coaching staff making things work out. Kicker Caleb Sturgis seems to have solidified his footing a bit, and the pass rush was a lot better this week. According to various indexes, they are in the driver's seat to win the division now, and if you do that, you get a home game. Seattle's struggling, Green Bay's banged up, and if they somehow get past the Panthers next week, it's all skittles and beer.

But all of that ignores the actual game that was played. Steve Young said this game reminded him of August at the Hall of Fame Game, and he wasn't wrong. Manning was terrible, their pass rush was non-existant, the RBBC limited, and so on, and so on. The team that could have beaten Dallas and Atlanta looked as bad as the Saints the week before, and maybe it's just Green making teams look bad...

Or maybe it's just that the league is bad now?

Think about it; what team do you have real confidence in? Cincy could run the table and it wouldn't matter until they had a playoff win. New England is a run it up machine, but the defense can be had, and rooting for them to be good is impossible. Denver's got a defense, but the offense is brutal. Carolina is undefeated without a single WR that scares a team. Green Bay is beat up, and so on. Short of just tossing up your hands and saying fine, Packers-Pats, there's not so much to look forward to as a great matchup.

And that's the problem with the NFL now; the feeling of randomness. It's random that the Eagles are in a cake division, that they turned the game around with a single INT rip, that a game that was about to go off the rails with rampant home town booing just flipped a switch and made it happen, more or less. It all seems like castles made of sand.

But maybe that's just the NFL in 2015. You don't have to like it. But you're going to watch it anyway.