Chip's system coming to fruition

BACK IN high school, Sam Bradford was a smooth two-guard on an AAU team that featured Blake Griffin, so he is well-aware of the proper way to operate a fastbreak offense against an overmatched "D."

"Lob city," the quarterback said Saturday night when asked to put into words his personal philosophy on sharing a playing surface with a human being capable of dunking over a midsize sedan.

Two hours earlier, Bradford led the Eagles on their own version of the fastbreak: a frenetic, 12-play charge down the field against a Ravens defense that might have backed up all the way to Baltimore if not for a touchdown that relieved them of their duty to keep pretending to try. Over the course of just 3 minutes and 55 second of game clock, the Eagles used four different personnel packages, employing the same one on consecutive plays just four times. Five players recorded a play of 7 yards or more, three of them running backs, the last coming on a 14-yard touchdown run by Ryan Mathews that looked like a calculated decision on the part of the Ravens to let the Eagles score.

There is a limited amount of information to glean from a single preseason possession, but one little bit we can say for sure: This is going to be a drastically different Eagles offense than we saw in Chip Kelly's first two seasons as head coach. The last two seasons have featured a playcalling autocrat molding his system to the imperfect parts at his disposal. The last two offseasons have featured a personnel autocrat shedding the imperfect parts for ones that better fit the system he wants to run. For a fan base that has not seen a playoff win since the 2008 season, the process has been both maddening and exhausting, but Saturday night should offer significant hope that it has, indeed, been a process and not a lead-poisoned Nero setting fire to an empire just to watch it burn.

To those who think otherwise, some absolution. These are not utilitarian American times, so when our phone buzzes and alerts us to some INSTANT ANALYSIS of the FANTASY IMPACT of the CONTROVERSIAL decision to release the star receiver or trade the star running back, it is easy to forget that football has always been the most utilitarian of American sports: 11 parts operating as one body, the failure of one compromising the functionality of the whole. DeSean Jackson suggesting that nobody can cover him is like Kim Kardashian suggesting that everybody should buy her prescription morning-sickness medication: Just because it looks sexy doesn't make it good for your system.

What we saw on Saturday - what we've seen all training camp - is Kelly's system as he has always desired it to be, abstract becoming concrete, theory becoming reality. It is a system, not a collection of single-tool talents that dictate the manner in which they can be deployed.

That's not to say that it is a system that has proved itself beyond reproach. The Eagles' blowout wins over the Colts and the Ravens in the first two preseason games come with asterisks: the first signifying that we are talking about the first and second preseason games, the second that we are talking about a Ravens defense that looked entirely uninterested in playing along with a run-and-gun offense that it will not have to face during the regular season. There were plenty of verbal smirks and eye rolls coming out of the Ravens' locker room afterwards, with coach John Harbaugh saying that Kelly's offense is "not something we're going to prepare for."

"I guess in the preseason, it's pretty effective in that sense," he said.

When the Eagles snapped the ball on Josh Huff's first-down catch, Ravens defensive tackle Tim Jernigan was standing 2 yards off the line of scrimmage behind linebacker Terrell Suggs, who was trying to make his way to the opposite side of the line while linebacker Daryl Smith was talking to the secondary, his back to the ball.

On Mathews' touchdown run, Baltimore's two starting defensive tackles were panting on the sideline and Suggs and middle linebacker C.J. Mosley were all alone on the strong side of the formation, which resulted in a hole roughly the size of the 6ABC ZooBalloon.

Like all things preseason, this little slice was all about process. Two years ago, the Eagles had one running back who preferred holes that were not the primary one and another who could not hang onto the ball. Their primary receiver had the ability to run fast in a straight line but not the ability to adapt as the field shrunk. In Sproles, Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor, they now have three receivers who can run routes and make catches in traffic, one of whom can also shift into a backfield that now features two big, decisive backs who get downhill and believe in the power of 4 or 5 yards over the illusion of 30.

They might not have anybody who can jump over a Kia - Sproles might need to jump just to see over one - but they could combine to do the football equivalent.

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese