Chip Kelly press conference transcript, a partial autopsy of Week 2

Chip Kelly hasn’t done the full autopsy on the game yet but he did offer some of his perceptions on the loss to the Carolina Panthers. He didn’t blame any one person or personnel grouping and he pointed out the good as well as the bad. Here’s the full transcript:

Overall thoughts of how your team played today?

I just thought we had too many self inflicted wounds, whether it was drops or missed tackles. We didn’t have a ton of penalties, we had six, but the penalties we had kept drives alive, you know and the things we didn’t do in week one we did in week two hurt us. We had a drive going and we had a fumble. I think we won the turnover battle, but when you turn it over three times, that’s not good. Whether it’s four or three, that doesn’t really matter so I just think that the things we can control, how well we tackle on defense, the penalties that kept the drives alive, we had too many drops to be consistent as a team. We just didn’t do what we needed to do to beat a very good team.

Initial thoughts on why you couldn’t get the run game going.

It wasn’t like it was a loaded box. We felt like they gave you that they want. Most of the time they went two out or one high. We felt like we could have won the ball but we didn’t. We didn’t do a good job. The two inside guys, are good players, Kawann Short and (Star) Lotuleli are good players and obviously you have outstanding backers in (Thomas) Davis and (Luke) Kuechly so sometimes when you spend a lot of time on the three technique or the one technique, you don’t get off the backer in time and the backer’s making a tackle so that was a match up that we didn’t win. We didn’t win the line of scrimmage and when you don’t win the line of scrimmage you’re not going to want the ball consistently.

What did you think of Blaine Gabbert’s performance?

I thought it was up and down. It wasn’t helped with the drops but there were some plays I thought he could have been a little more accurate with the ball. I thought he threw a nice ball, I mean you look at the two, I thought he throws a nice ball to Vance (McDonald), we got a 75 yard touchdown and then we hit him again and we drop it. I think as a team we were up and down. I’m not going to single one the guy out.

How was the energy level?

I think our guys were ready to play the game, but you still have to play the game against a good team. I think the match ups with some of their big receivers, kind of, they made some big, sometimes you look and some guys are wide open and you go what happened there, and then they beat us on that one to Greg Olsen. I mean he did a good job on the double move, but besides that there were a lot of contested catches where they just made plays. The one (Kelvin) Benjamin made, you know Jimmie’s (Ward) right there, knocks the ball out and then he makes the play. It was just one of those days where they were making plays and to be a good team we’ve got to make those plays.

What happened on the Olsen touchdown?

I think they just bought. He leaned to the corner and then came back to the post. The DB just bought the move to the corner.

Was heat a factor with the defensive rotation?

No. That’s what we’re always going to do. We’re going to bring 46 and whoever is up on defense, I think there’s 23, we’re going to rotate those guys and try to keep them fresh.

What kind of factor is Vance McDonald next week?

We’ll see. Vance has done a nice job for us all along. I’m sure he wants that play back, I mean the one down the middle when we had another shot at him, but you know he can catch and run. He proved that in the preseason. He had one of those early I think against the Texans and then did a great job with that one today so we’d like to get him going a little bit more.

Why did you use Phil Dawson in kickoffs?

Where we were trying to place the ball, and Phil’s very accurate in terms of how he kicks it you know, try to place the ball in terms of one corner or another corner and Phil’s real accurate doing that.

Is Andrew Tiller’s ankle bothering him?

I don’t know. I know we had planned on rotating some of these guys anyway because we knew it was going to be hot, but I don’t know a specific reason on that.

Why is Cam Newton so hard to bring down?

I mean a lot of times I think we’re there , you know a couple of times we got to him. It’s tough to take him down so he scrambles and keeps it alive. You know one time we end up making him strip and fumble, get a return down to the two and score. A couple of other times he kept plays alive and made some plays with his feet and that’s what you’re going to get and that’s the type of player he is. He’s so tough to get down on the ground because he’s so big and then I think his receivers did a great job because the threw up some contested balls and those guys went and got them. Funchess and Benjamin and Olsen, that’s a tough group, that’s a big set of receivers you have to face.

Do you think accuracy is a concern for Gabbert?

Yeah, you could say that. I think he missed a couple but he also put the ball right on the money a couple of times and we had some drops so it’s a combination. It’s not just one or the other. If it’s one or the other, it’s an easy maneuver, but if it’s not then there’s no answer. For some of those he puts the ball right on the money and the balls not caught so receivers got to help out the quarterback and the quarterback has to help out the receivers.