PHILADELPHIA – The holiday weekend has ended, but the sting of Thanksgiving doesn’t sit any easier. The fans in this city are back at work and still stewing.
The Detroit Lions pounded the Eagles to the tune of 45-14, giving Philadelphia its third loss in a row and the latest embarrassing failure in what has been an incredibly frustrating season.
“Do I have faith in Chip Kelly? Hell no,” said Lauren Shaye, a bartender at the Wrap Shack in Rittenhouse Square. "He messed this team up. He hasn’t proven that any decision he has made is working or is beneficial to this team. There’s no camaraderie between the team and the coaches. Something is not right. He has to go.”
It’s slow at this point in the afternoon. A few customers stop in for a quick bite, a quick beer as they empty out into the streets, back to whatever it is they had to do. Shaye settles a tab and hands a to-go box to a customer. She wipes up the bar and chats with her coworker, Alden Tegeler.
“Chip gave us no reason to doubt him,” Tegeler says. “Who knows if the team would be better with the roster we used to have. We’ll never know. But for now, we’re stranded.”
Winter’s chill quickly approaches the Northeast, but the temperature is hot for Kelly in Philadelphia.
The Eagles are 4-7, and the third-year coach is facing a barrage of criticism that won’t relent. After he took control over player personnel decisions this offseason, Kelly made a number of significant changes. He brought in system players who fit his philosophies. It hasn’t worked.
It was, after all, just one year ago when the team played in another Thanksgiving game – a 33-10 victory against the Dallas Cowboys – that had fans invigorated and envisioning potential successes to come.
The Eagles lost three games in a row before beating the New York Giants in Week 17 to give them a 10-6 record. They missed the playoffs, but their mark matched the one from the previous season, when they made the postseason.
This year was supposed to be the one in which they made the leap.
Instead, it's been a big step back. And the fans lost their patience quickly. After opening with a road loss in Atlanta, the offense was booed in the first half of its home opener the following week - a record, even for the Philly boo birds.
“I’ve never seen a town turn this quickly,” Anthony Gargano, a morning sports talk radio host for 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia, told USA TODAY Sports. “He dismantled a 10-6 team. He traded away and got rid of and replaced a lot of popular players. He’s not the most lovable, cuddly guy, and he’s not the guy that’s going to take the bullet for anyone.
“He’s not a people person and fans see that. All you’re trying to do is tell me that what you’re doing is working, when we clearly see it isn’t. I think they view him as that guy that’s telling them everything is fine when it isn’t. He’s not owning his mistakes.”
When you talk to fans here, they’re quick to point this out. They’ll lament the trade of running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills this offseason for linebacker Kiko Alonso, who has been a disappointment. They’ll talk about how Kelly cut offensive linemen Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans. They’ll bring up the team’s release of star wideout DeSean Jackson two years ago.
Even Kelly’s sayings are a sore subject here. At his press conferences, Kelly expresses support in the system he’s running and the coaching staff. He blames poor play on execution. He vows that the team’s culture is one built for winning.
“Those are dirty words in Philadelphia,” Gargano says. “Culture and execution. All of Chip’s phrases have become a source of angst. When people hear culture, they make a scowl at just the word itself. They hear execution, they’ll make another scowl, like they’re the ones being executed.”
Meanwhile, on the radio, Gargano goes to the phone lines.
Nick from City Centre calls in: “Chip has no emotional, motivating quality to him. He’s just a scientist with a lab coat, and he’s looking at numbers.”
Dozens of more calls just like this one filter in throughout the day.
At his news conference, Kelly publicly denies an NFL Network report that said representatives from the University of Southern California reached out to him over the weekend to inquire about potential interest in their head coaching vacancy.
By early afternoon, the Trojans announce they hired interim coach Clay Helton for the permanent position.
“I've been totally committed since the day I got here on January 16th of 2013, and that hasn't changed,” Kelly says at his press conference. “I'm here.”
Another caller responds, just minutes later after hearing that news: “I feel defeated,” he says, before a sigh. “Now we’re stuck with him.”
But for all the unease in Philly, there is still some moderate support. A handful of fans say they would bring Kelly back, but only for one more season, if the decision were theirs to make
Just around the corner from the Wrap Shack, Royce Smith and Evan Liu sit at the bar of Cavanuagh’s Rittenhouse and wait for their food. Televisions in front of them replay the NFL action from the weekend on a loop.
“I think there’s a real risk in getting rid of him too early,” Liu says. “Philadelphia fans, in general, are tough. But that’s the knee-jerk reaction. He’s certainly not a coach without talent. He needs to see that what he did in college may have worked there, but it won’t work here. It’s just not fair to judge him on just one season as the GM.”
Smith calls the McCoy trade and Jackson release “heartbreakers.” But there’s something else that disappoints him more than anything.
“There’s just no fire on this team,” Smith says. “A couple of years ago, when this team had Brian Dawkins and Jeremiah Trotter – those guys would pour every fiber of their body into every single play.
“There’s none of that in this locker room. There’s nobody in that locker room that, if you’re down 17 points at the half, is going to say: ‘Put your life on the line right now because we need this W.’ They’re giving up in the first quarter. It’s disgusting. That has to change."
