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Full transcript: Eagles head coach Chip Kelly on win over Rams, turnovers and special teams

Chip Kelly in the middle of his players during a time out in the third quarter. (Clem Murray/Staff Photographer)
Chip Kelly in the middle of his players during a time out in the third quarter. (Clem Murray/Staff Photographer)Read more

Came down to the end there, did you see that coming?

"No. I think obviously offensively, we have to do a better job of finishing people off, when we are up 34‑7, tried to talk to the guys on the sideline about not being complacent with that score, and let's finish this thing off. And obviously there were a couple key plays that we should have made. The fumble hurt us obviously. We got a drive going, a first down, and continued to stay on the field. I thought before those last couple of drives I thought our defense had done a really good job, created a lot of pressure obviously, I think they had four or five sacks caused a couple fumbles on the quarterback really hit him, had a couple key change of yardage, the one [Cedric Thornton] picked up and ran and obviously we scored on defense again. But we have got to do a better job offensively."

Nick's fumbled seem like a big play in the game.

"Yeah, that's critical, especially at that point in time. I thought we made a good decision in man coverage; backs turned, take off, I thought we had the first down and then we just got to control the ball. But we're not helping ourselves by turning the football over."

Can you talk about when the quarterback runs for the first down?

"Touchdown, first down, get down."

In that situation, should you always be sliding?

"We should be getting the first down and get down on the ground. I don't want him to take an unnecessary hit but like I said, it's always that touchdown, first down, get down. Let's get the first down and make sure we control the ball and then we're in good shape but we didn't do it."

Can you talk about the other two turnovers, the Lesean McCoy fumble and the Nick Foles interception?

"The ball was swinging on the first McCoy fumble and I thought it was going out before that. It was really far away from his body. We need to correct that. We've talked to him about it and he knows that and then it was definitely a fumble, we looked at it, it got punched out before he went down and then we just kind of threw the long interception trying to take a shot over the top but threw the ball kind of low and inside when we needed it to be high and outside."

You're sitting here 4‑1 but it's been a tough 4‑1.

"Yeah, tough 4‑1, soft 4‑1, doesn't matter, you're 4‑1, and it's the same thing. You could be 1‑4, 4‑1, you have to go back to work on Tuesday and that's what our whole mantra is. You can enjoy it for a 24‑hour period or so, for these guys, 48 hours, then you have to go back on Tuesday. Or when you play like we did against San Francisco and lose the game, you're going to feel crappy about yourself. But then you have to shake that all off when you come to work on Tuesday and have to be ready to go."

Did you see Nick throwing off his back foot a lot today?

"I'm watching everything on the field, so I get that off of film and hit the mechanics and where he is from a fundamental standpoint."

You guys talked about not giving up the plays for 20 plus yards. There were a few more today.

"A couple of them, I think our DBs were there they just need to make a play. It's not like guys are running clean down the field and we missed somebody. I think a couple we just need to make a play when the ball is in the air."

On Special Teams what exactly are you doing better this season?

"We are obviously creating more pressure on the opposing team's punter, so I think that kind of sets the tone for us. We made some key acquisitions in the off‑season to add to guys who are really good special teams players. [TE] James Casey has been a great special teams player for us for the last two years, and you saw today, he had the blocked kick. So we have a lot of guys that take pride in being on that unit whether it's James or [WR] Brad Smith or [S Chris] Maragos or [LB Bryan] Braman , there are a lot of guys contributing in a lot of different fashions and they came up big today. We'll continue to do it. They are seeing when they play on Sundays that the work they are putting in during the week is paying off."

You had more success in the run game this week. What did you see out of that group today?

"I thought we got a little bit better. Obviously I think we blocked things a little better up front than we did the week before but I still think we are leaving yards out there and we need to continue to try to get the ball vertical down the field, and there were times when we weren't doing that."

You said the DB's were in position but just needed to make the play. It looks like they have got the guys covered but they are not turning; is that confidence?

"It's a combination of everything. I mean, we'll sit down and watch the film with them and go over it. I'm sure Billy [Davis] [Defensive Coordinator] and John [Lovett] [Defensive Backs] will make the corrections on film."

Your last possession you decided to go with Sproles instead of McCoy. Was there a reason for that?

"[Running backs coach] Duce [Staley] was just rolling those guys. I don't call plays differently when Darren is in, as opposed to LeSean. Duce was just rolling them. I wouldn't read anything into that, that they were making a change or anything."

Do you recall the third and three hand off to Sproles? Did you have numbers in the box?

"Yeah, we thought, they had a chance, they went to nickel and we had two tight ends in the game so we were hoping that when we were in two tight end formation and nickel that we would be able to pop a run on third and three and see if we could get it and obviously we didn't."

You talk a lot about four minute offense. What did you see from that group?

"I just thought we were inconsistent. I thought there were times when we had it blocked up well and hit it and obviously Sproles got a big run in there and we had to kind of finish it off, then we didn't, we'd like to not give them the ball back when we had it, similar to what we did last year against Green Bay. But I think we are either just off here with maybe a miss up front or maybe a miss‑hit by the back. So we need to be more consistent from a standpoint of forming an offense and not putting our defense ‑‑ we shouldn't have had to put our defense back on the field in that situation. We should just be able to hold the ball and run the clock out."

What was the game plan with offense going in? It seemed to be a lot of quick throws and screens.

"Yeah, just try to loosen them up. A lot of times as we play teams, it's figuring how they decide to defend us. They were in a big man scheme, different then some of the other teams we face. Trying to get a feel for what they are going to do from a defensive standpoint, they have done a good job of playing zone and man. Just what are they going to choose to play us in, and they choose to play us in a lot more man today than we had seen. Even any of the other games we had played, I think Jacksonville and San Francisco played us in a ton of zone. These guys, their choice was to play us in man. Just have to do a better job with some of our man beaters. We had some guys there, but we have to do a better job. We knew what we were getting. We just have to execute."

Do you think Nick's struggles, has more to do with himself or the offensive line in terms of protection?

"I don't know, on that one particular play, it looked like he was pretty clean on the long throw to Jeremy [Maclin], but I would have to look at all of it to say ‑‑ I wouldn't lump it all in one category whether it's one or the other."

The touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin. It seemed like he was open a play before, was that a similar type of play?

"No, they were two different plays. One of them was play‑action pass. The other was a drop back. I felt in that situation, we wanted to take a shot and get the ball in the end zone. We missed the first one that looked like Jordan [Matthews] was open but we missed it but he bounced back on the second one and ripped a pretty good one in there to Maclin."

You had Marcus Smith II and Casey Matthews playing Inside linebacker, how do you think they held up?

"They competed. Until I can look at everything on tape, I really can't give you a, "Hey they played outstanding". I don't think there was anything glaring out there. I thought Casey made a couple plays out there. But a lot of those, I'm watching everything at that point so I couldn't give you a grade right now on that."

Do you have any sense of what is up with DeMeco?

"No, they just said he was out. I'll go talk to Chris [Peduzzi] [Head Athletic Trainer] and [Peter DeLuca] [Head Team Physician] for a little bit and then get updated sometime tomorrow."

In Lane Johnson's case without watching film, how did he hold up?

"I thought he held up pretty well. Concerned, obviously, he was away training and getting ready for this but he wasn't playing football. But I didn't see anything glaring like, oh my God, there's someone on the right side that just came in clean or Lane went the wrong way or whatever. I thought he played a clean gam, didn't have any penalties and I didn't see any big pressure coming off his side, looking and seeing from our perspective. I thought for the first time back, he felt solid in terms of what we had up front."

Why was WR Josh Huff active today and Jeff Maehl inactive?

"A lot of it has to do with special teams ability with [Brandon] Boykin as a gunner and Huff is a good gunner. So what was Boykin's status and if Boykin was going to be able to go the whole game, and then we're going to have to spell a little bit at gunner. Most of the decisions when we get to the active and de‑active, when guys are healthy, just become contributions from a special teams standpoint."

When it comes to closing team out when you're up. What comes to your mind right now, anything in particular that's glaring?

"Yeah, we turned it over. We had a drive going there where we can't turn the football over and give them an easy one there. We've got to try to stay ahead of the count so we can get it from 1st and 10 to second and medium or third and shorts are a lot easier to convert in terms of being able to run a real good four minute offense."

Sliding feet first, is that something Nick Foles has done in practice?

"I think he's done both. I've seen Nick do both. He played last year and we ran the clock out on the Redskins game and some of those games and he's done both, diving forward, diving there. I mean, obviously diving forward, if he slides, he gives himself up so there's not a fumble when you contact the ground, but when you dive forward, all you have to do is protect the football. We'll talk about it. We'll correct it."