Speed Kills: Breaking Down the Chip Kelly Offense by Alex Kirby

Speed Kills: Breaking Down the Chip Kelly Offense by Alex Kirby (lifeafterfootballblog.com) looks at the different parts of the 2013 Eagles Offense that blended Kelly's successful Oregon Offense with its option schemes along with a pro-style passing attack.  Alex Kirby does a nice job of breaking down and explaining this offense to the casual fan as well as giving enough X's and O's for fellow coaches looking to study and or incorporate elements of Kelly's offense.

Like all great offensive coaches, Kelly does a great job of creating the illusion of complexity, but the author says that Kelly will tell you his offense isn't as complex as it seems.  Rather, it is the simplicity of the offense that makes it so successful.  It is this simplicity that allows them to play fast and use the decision-making of the QB to choose the correct post-snap option that many of his plays provide. 

The author shows how "speed kills" in the no-huddle aspect of the Offense as well as utilizing the talents of LeSean McCoy and the since-departed DeSean Jackson.  He also looks at each part of the offense: the run game including run-pass options; the passing game which includes the quick game, the intermediate game, play-action passes, as well as screens.  He also takes a look at pass protection. 

The hard-core football coach will appreciate the analysis of all of the Option concepts off of the Zone Read play: the Now Screen to a WR, RB Flare motion, Bubble Screen, TE Flat, the Nose Read play, Speed Option, as well as how to do this with multiple TEs. 

There were some nice X's and O's breakdowns on plays I had never seen before like the Play-Action Boot off Gun Toss Sweep action from the Gun with a Tackle pulling and a WR coming in short-motion to simulate the WR crack-block that Kelly often uses to help get the speedy LeSean McCoy get to the perimeter.  I also like how the two-man Scat concept is merged with the Mesh concept to create the play featured on the cover of the book. 

The Option and Screen game often force the Defense to pick a side and make them wrong.  The QB is simply taught to get the ball to where you have a numbers advantage.  Everything about Kelly's Offense is about numbers and doing it as fast as possible to create an advantage.  The author says it best here at the end of his book: "Remove all of the flash and the fancy backfield actions and at its bare bones it's all about the numbers."  I appreciate the film study that went into this book and hope to see more works like this in the future.

Also, check out jimlightfootball.com for some good posts on a variety of topics.