Shady in the shadows for the Eagles

LeSEAN MCCOY, occasionally a teller of uncomfortable truths, said late Monday night in Indianapolis that without Darren Sproles, the Eagles "would be in some trouble."

Sproles is averaging 6.5 yards a carry (15 carries, 97 yards). He is the team's leading receiver, with 11 catches for 166 yards through two games, 15.1 yards per catch, an astonishing number for a running back. Whatever the Eagles envisioned when they traded a fifth-round pick to New Orleans for Sproles in March, it couldn't have been any better than this.

In most fans' imaginings of how Sproles and McCoy might fit together, the assumption was that Sproles would be the complementary piece, the cherry on the sundae - not the guy who turns the game around. Yet, that is what Sproles has done in both his outings as an Eagle. He has been the catalyst, the big-play back.

There's no indication that McCoy is begrudging Sproles any of this, but it does put him in an odd spot. McCoy, 26, last season led the NFL in rushing and set the franchise's single-season mark with 1,607 yards.

"I need to get my thing together," McCoy said Monday night, after gaining 79 yards on 20 carries and scoring a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 23 yards. McCoy was on the field for 49 snaps to Sproles' 25, but had less of an impact.

"I feel like I'm not playing to my level where I should be playing," McCoy continued. "Tonight, it was an average, above-average game where he carried us again. It's good to have that, because when you get that type of attention from the defense, other guys are making plays, and he's doing it. I don't mind at all, and the other thing is I don't feel as tired or as beat up."

McCoy characterized his workload against the Colts as "just enough to be effective."

Eagles coach Chip Kelly doesn't want us tracking where McCoy's totals are vs. last season, any more than he wants us using the 27 touchdown passes and two interceptions last year as a standard for judging quarterback Nick Foles, who has already matched that pick total.

"Weighing his production against last year is meaningless, in my opinion," Kelly said, in reference to McCoy, who has 41 carries for 153 yards (3.7 yards per carry), along with 10 catches for 64 yards. "Because we're not trying to win rushing titles, we're trying to win football games. I think he's always a very, very harsh critic of himself, which is a very admirable quality. I think that's one thing that pushes him, that's why he trained so hard, not only this summer but this offseason.

"Sometimes things are geared to take him away. If they're geared to take him away, the other guys have to make plays. We have enough weapons all around . . . people have kind of honed in on him, and rightly so, but it opens the field up for some of the other guys . . . It just depends on how people are going to defend us on a week-to-week basis."

Kelly noted that so far, opponents focusing on McCoy have been vulnerable to play-action, for example.

Other highlights from yesterday's day-after news conference with Kelly, before a closed afternoon practice that began preparations for Sunday's visit from the Redskins:

* Kelly said inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks, who has played very well this season, had an MRI on his injured right calf yesterday. "We do that with everybody that has a muscle thing," Kelly said.

Kendricks, later seen walking around NovaCare with a large bag of ice strapped to the back of the calf, had told reporters after the Monday night game that his calf had just cramped or spasmed, but he also was limping heavily then.

* Kelly said the offensive-line fill-ins - left guard Dennis Kelly and right tackle Andrew Gardner - "both competed really, really well against a real big, stout, strong front." Asked about the possibility of switching on the left side to veteran guard Wade Smith, signed last week, Chip Kelly said Dennis Kelly "did really well, so I'm not anticipating anything different right now."

Smith dressed but only blocked for field goals against the Colts.

* Kelly said he didn't say anything to rookie kicker Cody Parkey after Parkey missed a 38-yard field goal Monday night. "I didn't see him hanging his head or whatnot," Kelly said. "Honestly, if I was going to say anything, I would have said, 'Kick it straight,' because there's not much else I'm going to say to a guy in that situation. He knew he missed it. Everybody in the stadium knew he missed it. We knew he missed it.

"He just seems to carry himself a certain way, that you don't have to worry about him. You don't look over and say, 'He's down, I have to go pick him up.' "

Kelly said he liked Parkey's reaction to having to kick the 36-yard game-winner twice, when Indianapolis was awarded a last-second timeout.

"We were on the field and they said there was a timeout, so we were coming off the field. I looked over and he had a big smile on his face, like, 'All right, I've got this.' There's a lot about his makeup that you really like," Kelly said.

Lots of Eagles fans retweeted the ESPN screen shot that clearly showed terminology on Kelly's play chart, during a Lisa Salters sideline report Monday night. Kelly was asked yesterday if he'd seen it.

"No, I was actually at the game," Kelly joked.

Told that the chart was quite legible, Kelly said: "That's why they're the worldwide leader, right?"

Pressed for more of a reaction, Kelly said: "There isn't much to do about it. They already did it. You want me to complain about it?"

Eagles opponents have converted only six of 26 third downs through two games . . . Running back Chris Polk, sidelined since the first few days of camp with a hamstring problem, saw 20 snaps' worth of special-teams action against the Colts . . . Defensive coordinator Bill Davis was asked after Monday's game about the three offside/encroachment penalties his overeager charges incurred in the first half. "It killed us. It takes the wind out of your sails," Davis said. "That was probably the biggest thing we talked about at halftime. We were hurting ourselves. That was under our control. They all gave them first downs. That was unacceptable. We talked about it and settled down a little bit."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian