Kelly: Eagles' offensive line hurting, not McCoy

CHIP KELLY doesn't always tell us the whole truth when it comes to injuries, but he genuinely seemed to have no idea what questioners were talking about yesterday, when the Eagles' coach was asked about LeSean McCoy's health.

The topic came up in the wake of McCoy's odd answer to the health question right after the Eagles' 26-21 loss to the 49ers on Sunday, in which McCoy gained 17 yards on 10 carries, a week after gaining only 22 yards on 19 carries against Washington. That's 39 yards on his last 29 carries, for the guy who led the NFL in rushing a year ago and set the franchise single-season record, with 1,607 yards.

"It doesn't matter if I'm healthy or not, we've got to win games," McCoy said, before adding, "I'm fine."

"Not that I'm aware of," Kelly said, when asked whether something's hindering McCoy. "He's not on the treatment list. He does normal maintenance like everybody else, but he hasn't had any injuries. We haven't done anything with him."

McCoy did not appear on his 94WIP radio show last night to clarify his status; former Eagles linebacker and WIP midday host Ike Reese filled in.

McCoy suffered a toe injury against New England Aug. 15 that he likened to a less serious version of turf toe. Kelly didn't seem to even recall the toe problem, when reporters brought it up yesterday ("His what?"). McCoy also took a helmet-to-helmet hit early in the Washington game, and had to leave the field for concussion testing.

Kelly was insistent yesterday that McCoy isn't injured, and that the problem also isn't so much that he isn't hitting the hole decisively - though Kelly indicated that McCoy, like everyone else on an offense that scored no points in San Francisco, is pressing, trying to do too much.

"When people are out at certain positions, other guys maybe try to overcompensate at times. I think that's kind of a natural feeling for everybody," Kelly said. "Everybody's got to settle down, get back to playing football."

Kelly said the McCoy mystery is easily solved with a glance at the Eagles' offensive line, which Sunday featured three backups - left guard Matt Tobin, center Dave Molk and right guard Dennis Kelly - with Todd Herremans moving from right guard to right tackle. The offense has struggled greatly since the loss of center Jason Kelce in the Washington game to an abdominal tear that required surgery.

Asked whether he sees McCoy making the first tackler miss, the way he did so often last season, Kelly said: "Yeah, I see that. I don't think we've been able to spring him. We haven't gotten him to the second level [where such footwork occurs]. We're losing some battles at the line of scrimmage . . . I think everybody at every position is pressing . . . we just need to settle down and start playing football."

Later, in response to a question about the struggles of quarterback Nick Foles, Kelly said: "We set a very high standard here in terms of the success we had last year, but there's a different group of guys playing right now, and I think that's the reality of it."

The return of right tackle Lane Johnson from a four-game banned substance suspension might restore some bounce to McCoy's runs. Kelly said he saw Johnson briefly yesterday, upon Johnson's return to the team's practice facility. He said Johnson had to meet with the training staff to determine "where he is - we haven't seen him for a month."

Later yesterday, the Eagles reinstated Johnson to the roster and axed undrafted rookie tackle Kevin Graf, who presumably will return to the practice squad if he clears waivers.

One would think Johnson will start at right tackle Sunday against the Rams, with Herremans moving back inside to guard, but that picture will be clearer after Johnson practices today. He is scheduled to speak with reporters for the first time since heading off to Texas to serve his time.

"We haven't seen him in 4 weeks, so where is he at and what's his - how does he process things, how quickly does he get back in the swing of things, where is he from a health standpoint?" Kelly said.

Asked how he thought Tobin and Molk did in the first NFL start for both, Kelly said Molk "competed," and at 6-1, 290, "his lack of size was probably an issue for him where he got bulled a couple of times."

Kelly said Tobin was limping for a while after an early game injury, "but kind of shook it off and came back."

On the Fox broadcast Sunday, former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira strongly critiqued current NFL executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent's declaration that Washington defensive lineman Chris Baker "did nothing wrong" when Baker blindsided Nick Foles at the end of an apparent interception return last week.

Pereira noted that the guy who currently holds Pereira's old job, Dean Blandino, has not come out and said anything like that. Pereira said that in fact, ref Tony Corrente was told he made the right call, a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Baker, who also was ejected following a brawl with Eagles left tackle Jason Peters.

Pereira seemed to indicate he thought Vincent - who was given his current job in March - should have consulted Blandino, who would want the penalty call made "100 times out of 100," Pereira said.

"You don't want the quarterback blown up on a change-of-possession play," Pereira said.

The league fined Peters $10,000 and Baker $8,268 for what happened after Baker's hit.

Chip Kelly said he didn't know whether linebacker Mychal Kendricks (calf) might return to practice this week. He said Kendricks "started doing a little bit of running last week," but Kelly said the Eagles will have to constantly monitor how Kendricks' calf feels at every step of the recovery process . . . Kelly said he didn't think his defense got worn out, playing 42:17 Sunday. He noted that four Eagles defensive penalties extended drives and kept Bill Davis' group on the field.

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