Brian Baldinger talks about the Eagles and Coach Kelly’s gamble on injured players. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

With 5:18 left in the first quarter of the Eagles game against the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football and starting their second possession on their own 20 yard line, Chip Kelly had seen enough.

Their first possession traveled 10 plays and 83 yards but stalled at the Colt 14 yard line where the Birds settled for Cody Parkey field goal. The Colts would take the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown and lead 7-3. Lucas Oil Field was rocking.

The mastermind head coach could hardly believe that starting at inside linebacker in place of their play making linebacker, Jerrell Freeman, was first year player Josh McNary from Army.

Chip new the scouting report on the West Point grad all too well. McNary was the Cadets all time leading sack artist with 28. He was an overachiever and a heck of a feel good story. Chip decided on the 11th play of the night that the feel good story would have his weakness exposed in front of a national TV audience.

He went with a 3 X 1 set and Foles in the shotgun. Immediately next too him was the guy the Chargers nicknamed the “lightning bug.” Darren Sproles was in the game for his second play of the night. Chip anticipated a man free defense where each receiver had a defensive player assigned to them while they played a free safety deep in center field.

Darren Sproles has been the Eagles wild card so far this young season. Photo by Andy Lewis/contrastphotography.com

The wide receivers, Maclin and Cooper streaked down the field taking their defenders with them. The two tight ends, Celek and Ertz ran opposite of one another; Celek running an out while Ertz ran a deep cross. Sproles ran a TEXAS route out of the backfield which is nothing more than an angle route over the middle of the field. Isolated and all alone was the first year player from Army to cover the ‘LIGHTNING BUG.”

He never came within 10 yards of Sproles as Foles tossed a 10 yard lob and 57 yards later the Eagles were knocking on the Colts door for another quick score.

The Lucas Oil Field crowd was silenced with one quick dagger to the heart of the Colt defense.

Darren Sproles and Chip Kelly were made to dance with one another. It was a shock that on March 13th of this year the Eagles flipped a measly 5th round pick to the Saints to make that partnership a reality. It sent shock waves throughout the league. The league and its coaches and its fans had seen enough of Chip in his inaugural year to know that this was going to be a prosperous partnership.

Drew Brees made one all encompassing statement about Sproles. Brees said, “you only see a Darren Sproles type of player come around once in your career.”

The Eagles run a simplistic offensive system. Most plays can be reduced to one word or one symbol or in some cases just a hieroglyphic gesture. But within that word is encoded a lot of information.

The genius of Chip isn’t in the simplification of his terminology or the design of the plays or even in the speed that they operate under. No, its just a good old fashioned understanding of what the opposition wants to do and with whom are they doing it with. Its no different than what SUN-ZU wrote about in his manuscript, The Art of War over 2000 years ago.

Where is the weakness? What is the anticipated defense?.Once those knowns are figured out then Chip has an arsenal of routine plays and concepts and talent to attack you with

Enter the “NOSEEUM.”

That’s the nickname the Saint fans gave to Sproles in his three-year stint with the Saints.

A noseeum is a tiny insect too small to see but still has a mean bite. At 5’6″ and 190 solid powerful pounds Sproles is hard to see sometimes but his impact has always been enormous. Perhaps it is a non football anecdote that best explains the type of competitor that Sproles is. He was born with a speech impediment.

Like most kids who suffer from this condition it bothers them and they get made fun of. But Sproles attacked his condition and had it corrected. When he graduated from Kansas State in 2005 his degree was in ..speech pathology…impressive individual.

There is nothing on the football field that Sproles cannot do. He can return kicks, run out of the backfield, catch passes at any number of positions and he can block with the best of all backs. In four different seasons he has amassed 2200 or more yards and the only player in NFL history to do so.

I could go on with accolades from teammates and coaches. I could list accomplishments that could fill the remaining pages of this magazine about Sproles.

He wouldn’t like all the praise. For now all Eagle fans have to put their eyes on No. 43 each and every time he is on the field. On any given play he is liable to explode on any team from any position on the field. I am not sure the next time the Eagles will face a first year player from Army at linebacker that they will expose early in the game.

But there are plenty of other players that the Eagles will see that the smallest player on the field will put the biggest fear into their hearts. Leave it to Chip to figure out when it will happen next.  •