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Much has been made of new Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Chip Kelly, and his up-tempo, high-scoring college style offense.
Kelly, as you already know, was the mastermind who put together the Oregon Duck’s offense and essentially turned Oregon into a college football superpower, both on the field and in recruiting.
His presence in the NFL has been a big deal, and for good reason. Even though Philadelphia is 1-1, the Eagles have put up 63 points in two games, rank 10th in the NFL in passing (301 yds per game) and 2nd in rushing (176 yds per game), according to ESPN.com
This is a unit that features Michael Vick at quarterback, LeSean McCoy in the backfield and DeSean Jackson at wideout, so Kelly has the personnel available to run his offense and run it well.
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Kansas City’s defensive unit will without a doubt be stretched this Thursday night, and defensive tackle Dontari Poe is looking forward to seeing how they’ll match up, per a recent press release:
“It’s going to be good to see how we stack up against their offense. We’ve been slowly playing against our own fast-paced offense during training camp and things like that. So it’ll be good to see how we stack up against them.”
Poe also gave his analysis of the Eagles’ offense:
“Fast. Very fast. They’ve got a lot of playmakers, so we’ve just got to play as a whole as a defense. We can’t single anybody out. Just play team defense, and we’ll be alright.”
For what it’s worth, Kansas City’s defense seems primed and ready to handle this test. Bob Sutton’s group is arguably the best unit on the team as a whole, and it features star players the likes of Poe, Derrick Johnson, Justin Houston, Tamba Hali and of course, Eric Berry.
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The Chiefs’ defense has played aggressive, has been intimidating, and has most importantly, caused turnovers, so if there’s one unit that can single-handedly beat the Eagles this Thursday night, it would be the defense.
The Eagles’ offense may be ranked second in rushing, but keep in mind the Chiefs’ defense also boasts a No. 2 ranking in opponent rushing yards allowed, at 54 yards per game.
Philadelphia may boast a high-powered offense, but the Chiefs have enough firepower of their own to counter.
Note: Quotes via Chiefs Communications.