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An updated Chip Kelly balls Photoshop, via reader Mike

In an admittedly nice to see transition from ink to online formatting, Phil Sheridan, now with ESPN.com, had a good piece today in which he featured tens of quotes he gathered from people around the NFL on Chip Kelly’s offense. A few stand out:

Jerry Jones:

“I watched most of that ballgame and they do get up to the line. I think you better get ready. You don’t get to substitute or you don’t get to match up as well. That’s always been when you look at the Red Ball or the no-huddle. That’s always been a challenge for a team. Some combination of that is pretty sound, relative to getting plays off, keeping the defense a little disjointed. I think it’s also sound, too. It’s a good crisp way to run a football team. I don’t know if that’s a fad. That stepped-up play is one that may have a place.”

Tom Coughlin:

“The version that Chip Kelly has brought to Philadelphia is in itself new to the NFL. We’ve all had the two-minute offense where quite frankly we are snapping the ball at that speed, the idea of playing for a full game like that, you know, is new for me in watching it in the NFL. They’re putting the pressure really on the defense to get lined up and communicate and recognize again what all the options are and be in position. Even when it isn’t something that is going what I call Mach speed, it still forces you without a huddle to do a great job communicating.”

Is it just me, or do Jones and Coughlin sound like old media types talking about Twitter and blogs. You know, the online webstinations and that Twitters might just be here to stay. Our kind may want to start figuring these things out and promote our material on our Myface pages. We need to keep up.

Another interesting take– Kyle Long, who played for Chip at Oregon:

“I think that the speed of that offense isn’t gonna be like that for four quarters. What they’re gonna do is they’re gonna come out, and they’re gonna punch people in the mouth with that tempo. That’s what we did at Oregon. We wanted to come out and set the tempo and dictate to the other team what the game was gonna be like. They jumped out and they scored all those points and you just hang on. You play sound, fundamental football for the other three quarters. Then you can hopefully get away with a win.”

That’s the sense you got the other night. It’s going to be damn near impossible to keep up that pace for four quarters. But if the Eagles can punch teams in the mouth GAPING HOLE ON THE LEFT SIDE early in the game, then they’ll just have to hang on in the second half. That style of football also scares the shit out of me. Much easier said than done in college than the NFL, where teams come back on you in a hurry. See: 1, Week.

Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali agrees:

“I don’t think you’re going to go through a season running twice as many plays as [the opponent] every week. That’s a lot of games stacking up. I don’t think they will do that. I think they’ll try to come out, outcondition the opponent, keep them off balance, try to get points now. Once the game gets under their control, they’ll get back to what they do at a normal pace. In college, it works. You play 12 games and you have a bunch of players on your team. You don’t have that many players [in the NFL] to wear them down. But the mindset of coming out and playing fast and getting [a lead] early, that goes a long way.”

LOL, Tamba– you play for Andy Reid.