Q. About the pick play, did you ever get an explanation on what the difference was between Cardinals WR Ted Ginn, Jr.'s and WR Josh Huff's?
CHIP KELLY: We did not get an explanation, no.
Q. You never got an explanation on the Ginn one?
CHIP KELLY: No, did not get an explanation.
Q. They were very similar type plays?
CHIP KELLY: Seems like it when you look at the film.
Q. On RB Chris Polk's run, was it your understanding that the guys up in the booth got the necessary replays, or was it a case of being on the road and not getting the ones in time?
CHIP KELLY: We didn't get anything that ‑‑ really it's a very yes and no [scenario], 'Should we challenge, shouldn't we challenge?' and we didn't have anything conclusive, so that's what we got.
Q. Down at the goal line is there a case to be made for, 'Gee, maybe we should challenge this if there's a chance that it's a touchdown?'
CHIP KELLY: In hindsight there is, but there's also a case of, 'Do you need your timeouts?' We wouldn't have been in that situation at the end. I think it's got to be conclusive, and I think that's the biggest situation that we're looking for in terms of [whether] you are going to use your time out in that situation or use your challenge in that situation. It's very difficult.
I also know in this league as it's been explained to us, spots aren't very much ‑‑ it's got to be ‑‑ aren't overturned very much. It's an interesting deal. We had about six inches to get a first down or a touchdown, so it was kind of a ‑‑
Q. The sticks on your sideline aren't official, right?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah.
Q. Because the stick was outside of the 1-yard line.
CHIP KELLY: Yeah. Q. That created some confusion, too, I think.
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, but they measured it, so it wasn't that ‑‑ I mean, they brought the sticks out and measured it, and then obviously by the measurement we were short.
Q. What did you see on film on the RB LeSean McCoy run on third-and-inches? Members of the offensive line said they thought that they had a favorable look pre-snap.
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, we did, their linebacker penetrated on the backside and we were a little late getting off the ball on the left side, but we got a little bit of penetration there. I thought [TE] James Casey had a hell of a block coming back to seal the backside, and we did not stop the penetration up front.
Q. What happened to G/T Todd Herremans when he left the game for a little bit?
CHIP KELLY: They said he had an elbow and then he went back in. What I get on the sideline during the game is, 'Todd is down,' and we don't have a conversation on why he's down, why he's not down, and then they said he was back up.
Q. You typically do not speak to the trainers about injured guys until after this press conference, but --
CHIP KELLY: Every week we do that.
Q. Do you know if he's having a test this morning on the elbow?
CHIP KELLY: I'm going to talk to the trainers after this. We get literally ‑‑ you've got a great streak going, so again, next Monday I would just ask the same question. (Laughter)
Q. In terms of self‑inflicted wounds, you spoke about that in the past. How do you fix those? Is it a coaching point?
CHIP KELLY: It's everything. It's not ‑‑ I mean, no one plays a perfect game. No one coaches a perfect game. I mean, we're all trying for that. That's obviously everybody's goal in that situation. But I think the first thing you do if you make a mistake is you've got to admit it. You've got to address it. Why did it happen? Dissect why it went on, and then go out and what do you need to do to fix it? That's basically how it is no matter what it is, no matter what went on in the game on Sunday. Let's look at the film, let's study it, let's take a look at what was the call, what were you supposed to do, why didn't we execute it the way it was supposed to be executed, and then make the necessary corrections and then move on.
Q. Each play is different, but the turnovers this season as a whole, do you have ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, there's not a consistent thing with it. I know we've thrown nine interceptions, but there's not a consistent, 'It's because we're throwing this route and we're off in timing because it's this.' Sometimes it's the rush, sometimes it's we weren't running the proper route, and sometimes it's the quarterback. If there is one thing, it would be easily fixable, but it's not one thing.
Q. QB Nick Foles says on a weekly basis, whether he wins or loses, that he has to improve and get better.
CHIP KELLY: Which is good thing. We all have to improve.
Q. Have you seen a progression in his play?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I've seen some big things. I thought the throw to [WR] Riley Cooper was a huge throw. I thought the pass to [WR] Jeremy Maclin on the fake screen left coming back the other way, to stand there in the rush and stand in there and throw that football, I mean, there were a lot of real positive things from him. So yeah, I do see improvement from him.
Q. The backpedaling that he did yesterday, how much of it was to avoid that rush? How much of it might have been just ‑
CHIP KELLY: It's a combination, and at times he probably shouldn't have gone as far. I think sometimes you feel something coming, you think it's there, and you've got to set your feet and take that hit. And there were times he did set his feet and take the hit and deliver the ball on time. Again, it's not just one thing.
Q. On the interception where Foles was throwing to Cooper, it looks like before the snap Cooper was jumping up and down as if he might not have known ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: No, Riley ran the right route. Everybody was on the same page. The ball was just thrown behind the receiver.
Q. Because of the problems with the offensive line and such, is he being asked to do more than he was last year?
CHIP KELLY: Who?
Q. Foles.
CHIP KELLY: No, we haven't changed anything.
Q. He threw it a ton of times, I know that was the game plan, but he's throwing ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: That was more of how we were attacking Arizona as opposed to anything to do with our offensive line or anything going into it. They were the No. 1 rush defense going into it, so there were some things in the run game we thought we could get accomplished, and I felt we did. We probably ran the ball more than I think ‑‑ I think they were giving up 70 yards in the game and we get 110 on them, or something to that effect. But we felt like we could throw it, and especially when their No. 1 corner Patrick Peterson goes down, so now you've got a couple new guys in the secondary there, and I thought obviously from a production standpoint, we threw the ball pretty well against them.
It's a good sample size of games now, and Foles is in the bottom of some significant categories such as completion percentage, quarterback rating, turnovers, et cetera. Where are you with the quarterback? How are you assessing him at this point?
CHIP KELLY: I think Nick ‑‑ what's the record now, 5‑2? I think Nick is 5‑2 in my opinion. I think you rate your quarterback in terms of, 'Are you winning, are you losing?' In both games that we've lost, we've had a chance to win the game on the offensive side of the ball, and we just didn't execute in those situations.
Q. A report came out that you're looking for upgrades at safety ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: No.
Q. Are you dissatisfied at that position?
CHIP KELLY: No, I don't know where that report came from. A lot of times the people that float that are the people that want their safety picked up. I may look into that, but we're not actively looking to upgrade anything like that.
Q. Independent of that report, how do you feel about the safeties and S Nate Allen in particular?
CHIP KELLY: I think they've done a good job. I think Nate got beat once. I think he made two outstanding plays. You look at the fumble and the recovery, did a hell of a job there. You know, he bit the cheese, and he admits it, and it's one thing. But I don't think he can be defined by one play. I thought there were two X-plays in the game, one 80‑yarder and one 75‑yarder. Besides that, I thought our defense played outstanding all day long against a really, really good offense. But it's unfortunate at times when you're in those situations that you're going to get exposed. If it's a D‑lineman that doesn't rush the right gap and bites on the wrong move, you don't get exposed to that level. But I think Nate has played well this year, and we're real happy with Nate.
Q. Just to be clear on your response to that trade report, you said you may look into it but nothing ‑‑ you may look into where the report came from or you may look into a safety?
CHIP KELLY: No, I'm not looking into the report and no, we're not looking into safeties. If someone calls us and says they want to give us their safety, then we would take a safety. I mean, I think the whole trade deadline in the National Football League, and I said it this morning, is a little bit overblown. I think there was one trade in the entire league last year, and we traded Sop [DT Isaac Sopoaga] to the Patriots and swapped draft picks. It's not Major League Baseball where we're unloading contracts and four guys are going here and then all of a sudden we're trading Minor Leaguers and all that. I mean, it makes for good talk, but we're not actively looking for anything. But if someone called us, we'd obviously listen if someone called us.
Q. You went with a lot of dime packages on defense, likely because they have a lot of four wide out sets --
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, a lot of personnel. They played a lot more ‑‑ a lot of times there were four wides and a tight end. They were a lot more spread out, so I think kind of what they did personnel‑wise we were matching what they did personnel‑wise.
Q. It seemed like CB Nolan Carroll II had a good game, and it seemed like even when they ran the ball in those situations he was still kind of able to make plays for you.
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I think Billy [defensive coordinator Bill Davis] talked about it‑‑ I think Nolan is really growing into that position, has really kind of found a niche in there, and it's really helped us in some of our matchups. Because when you've got [Andre] Ellington at the running back, it's, 'Who are you going to put on him?' and if you don't put the linebacker on him, 'Who are we going to put on the tight end?' So I think that combination for us has really started ‑‑ I think it's played well. The second-down play before the pass, Nolan almost intercepted it, made a nice play on that play.
I think that's developing. We'll see where [LB] Mychal [Kendricks] is. Mychal played 22 snaps, kind of right about our ceiling for him, what we thought going into the game. So we'll see how he can continue to develop this week in practice and how much we can kind of put back on his plate in terms of where we are. But that's been a good grouping for us so far.
Q. Understanding that you go day‑to‑day, are you getting a feel for how close C Jason Kelce might be?
CHIP KELLY: No, I haven't seen Jason here. He wasn't going to go last week. I think with Jason and that injury, it's not something that we want to rush him back early and then all of a sudden he misses an extended period of time after that. We want to make sure he's 100 percent healthy. You've got to get him back into it. He did a good job in terms of what he could do and couldn't do last week. He jumped in a little bit in team drills, really being a look-squad guy for our defense and doing some different things and probably had some residual soreness from it just because he hasn't played football in a while, but it didn't seem like there was anything that affected the injury, so we'll see how he progresses this week.
Q. On Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald's touchdown, was there anything that S Malcolm Jenkins and CB Bradley Fletcher could have done differently, or did the Cardinals just have a good call there?
CHIP KELLY: You know, they made a good call. We're in an all‑out blitz. You could have locked it and played high‑low, instead of in-and-out on it, but they made a good call, and Ginn threw a good block, and the ball went out the backside.
Q. You guys practiced back shoulder passes a lot in the training camp --
CHIP KELLY: I think you guys wrote about it in training camp. I don't think we practiced it more than you guys wrote about it, though.
Q. Is that something that's in Foles' arsenal?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, depending on what we're throwing and how we're calling it, 'Are we going vertical, are we getting a ton of press man?' and some of those things.
Q. On the Fitzgerald touchdown it looked like CB Brandon Boykin wasn't able to catch him and it seemed like he was working through something throughout the game. Is that right?
CHIP KELLY: Not that I know of, no.
Q. Are you still learning things about Maclin, about ways to use him?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah. We're what, seven games in right now? I mean, he didn't play last year and I think Mac is learning things about himself in terms of what he can do and what he can't do, but it's what I expected. I was asked the question yesterday, 'Am I surprised?' No, not at all. I was so disappointed for Jeremy a year ago when he got hurt because I thought in terms of what we do, what a real outstanding player he could be in this system, and we're starting to continue to see that. But I think he's a difficult one‑on‑one matchup. He's got good size, he's got good speed. You know, he played ‑‑ he was open early in that game before Patrick [Peterson] got hurt.
I think he can stretch it from a vertical standpoint, but he can also run after the catch. I think he proved that not only early here in his career, but he proved that in college. We used him a little bit as a punt returner [and he] had a good punt return for us. We're just starting to get to know him a little bit better than some of the other guys that have been here for a year.
Q. Was Huff ahead of Polk on the kick return unit because of Polk's increased role on offense?
CHIP KELLY: No, Huff was back there the week before, too. And Polk had been out, so Polk was injured, and Huff took over. We really liked Huff in preseason. [He] returned one against the Bears for a touchdown. I think he's got a little bit more long speed. That wasn't just because of Chris' extended role. I think you'll see Josh back there if he's healthy.
Q. You mentioned that you have confidence in the defense, and that's part of the reason why you kicked the field goal. How about for the matchup that you had on the field for that fourth-down play? Was there a reluctance because the offensive line wasn't at full strength, or what was the reasoning?
CHIP KELLY: No, there wasn't. I literally ‑‑ I thought about the decision. Obviously because you've got the two‑minute warning, you've got some time to think about it, and I thought besides the one play to Fitzy [Fitzgerald] where Ginn blocked for him, I thought our defense played outstanding. I know Nate [Allen] made a great play on a seven-route in the corner of the end zone. I thought the play in the series before that, to hold them to a field goal, when [LB] DeMeco [Ryans] made a great play, I was very, very confident in our defense, and I'm still very, very confident in our defense.
They had two plays for 155 yards, but besides those two X-plays, I thought our defense is playing at a real high level right now, and our defense has finished off games. They finished off the Rams game, they finished off the Redskins game. They've been in those situations before, and I've got a ton of confidence in them, and if I had to do it again, I'd do the same exact thing again: I'd put it on our defense.
Q. In terms of the self-inflicted wounds, you spoke about the turnovers, but what about the penalties? Why do you think those are happening?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, the penalties in that game were on both sides. They had 10, we had 11-- that were accepted. I think it was just one of those games where we've got to understand how the officiating crew is officiating a game and play accordingly to it. The week before against the Giants, I thought we did an outstanding job from a penalty standpoint, but this game we didn't do what we needed to do to win games, and those penalties, those negative yardage plays that are affecting you on offense when we're not going forwards, we're going backwards, we've got to address. So really the penalties and the turnover situation on the offensive side of the ball hurt us.
Q. T Jason Peters is not a guy who gets called often. He got the same penalty twice. Was that a point of emphasis yesterday?
CHIP KELLY: No. I mean, he got hands to face, and looked like on the coach's film both times that his hand got up in there. But Jason has been really, really good. He hasn't been a guy that's been a big penalty guy for us, but it just seemed like it was one of those days.
Q. You mentioned baseball before. In baseball you'll see an umpire crew and they'll say, 'Okay, he calls this, this and this.' The announcers yesterday were talking about that officiating crew being very hyper in terms of the officiating, particularly hands to the face. Do you talk to your team about that, or is that a bad idea?
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, we talk to our team about it, but if you put hands in someone's face, it's still a penalty. I mean, on Jason's two penalties, you just can't say, 'Well, that wasn't hands to the face.' And we know that going in, that this crew calls 'this' more, but usually when they call it more, it's because it happened more. They're not making things up out there. In both of the instances with Jason, he did have his hands in the guy's face, and they were penalties.
Q. How do you think T Lane Johnson is doing three games into his return?
CHIP KELLY: He's still knocking some rust off. Again, he's a second‑year player. You know, he's not Jason [Peters], he's not Todd [Herremans], who have been around for a long time, but I think the one thing I love about Lane is he's a competitor and competes his tail off out there. But he's still ‑‑ there are some looks that he's seeing in the third game that he hadn't seen yet during the year, and I said the same thing last year. Usually Lane needs to see it once, and then for some reason if it was an issue the first time, when we make the correction, he doesn't make that mistake again. It's just a matter of getting acclimated a little bit, but I think he's playing well.
Q. The disparity in the amount of flags that get called between referee crews is pretty significant. How much emphasis do you put on that during the week? How much studying do you do and do you relay it to the players?
CHIP KELLY: We know what they call, but you know, hands to the face is hands to the face. It doesn't matter who's refereeing the game. That part of it doesn't change. We're not teaching our guys to do that, and whether a crew calls it or doesn't call it, it's not something where we say, 'Hey, you can get your hands to the face because this crew hasn't called it.' We're trying to play within the rules and compete, and if there's disparity from crew to crew, so be it.
But our guys know going in what we're getting.
Q. What did you think of Cardinals S Deone Bucannon's hit on Maclin?
CHIP KELLY: Which one, the out of bounds? Q. Knocked him out ‑‑
CHIP KELLY: Out of bounds, and then he hit the Gatorade –
Q. No, the one that ended up knocked Patrick Peterson out of the game.
CHIP KELLY: Oh, that hit? Yeah. Interesting.
*Q. How did you think Kendricks looked during his snaps? Was his limited snap count intentional? *
CHIP KELLY: Yeah, I said it earlier, we were only going to play him in a certain amount of snaps just because he hadn't played. We were somewhere in the 15 to 20 [range], just talking about what we could get him acclimated in, and then from a training standpoint, we used him in dime situations so that he didn't have to have the whole game plan, he didn't have to get all the regular snaps in there and then [we could] try to figure out, monitor him. We felt like with [the Cardinals'] personnel going into the game, we knew that they would be in certain personnels that were going to elicit that defensive call from Billy. So, I thought he did a good job when he was back out there. He obviously brings so much athleticism to the position. Again, we'll see this week in training if we can increase his role and where he can. Because I think with that injury, from what I understand, it's just that it gets fatigued, so how much can he handle?
