SANTA CLARA — After the 49ers lost their 12th game in a row, Chip Kelly admitted he went conservative on the play-calling in the second half.
If he ends up unemployed in 2017 — something that’s now not totally out of the question — it’ll be a coaching strategy Kelly will never forget.
By trying not to lose the game, instead of winning it, Kelly and the 49ers collapsed 23-17 in overtime against the comatose New York Jets. Oh, the irony. With the first fourth quarter lead in hand since Week 1, all San Francisco had to do was finish off the Jets.
Instead, Kelly chose to putter around and it turned into the most mortifying loss in the franchise’s most mortifying season since 1978.
“As I told the guys, that ones on me,” Kelly said. “It’s my responsibility.”
It really is, Chip. The further this 49ers tailspin drags out in the mud, the more at fault Kelly looks and the more the warning signs from Philadelphia — that his offense actually lacks creativity, that coaches obliterate him in the second half — appear to be playing out now on the West Coast. We all know the roster GM Trent Baalke handed Kelly wasn’t going to produce more than four or five victories, but 1-15 was never the expectation, not even from the staunchest Chip pessimists around the league.
The fourth-and-2 play-call in overtime is the final straw of a timid second half, a strategy that lost the 49ers the game. Kelly shouldn’t lose sleep at night going for it in this situation — ball at the 37-yard line and the field goal was out of Phil Dawson’s range. But Kelly’s mistake was hitting the Carlos Hyde button and not on a read-option play. With a makeshift offensive line in front of him, Hyde ran straight up the gut and was met for no gain.
“I didn’t have a lane where I could go,” Hyde said, who finished with a career-high 193 yards. “I just tried to hit it up in there and tried to get a push, but (New York) did a good job there.”
Winnable games on paper against the Bears and Jets have ended up being defeats that make you wonder if the 49ers could beat the Cleveland Browns (0-13). If Kelly can’t call the right plays in meaningless games against floundering opponents, how should the York’s and 49ers fans trust he’ll improve with time? That’s a fair question that needs to be pondered by the billionaire family when considering Kelly’s job status.
Because the moment the game started, the miserable Jets looked like they did not want to be on the football field. New York had every circumstance going against them. An embarrassing loss on Monday Night Football meant a short week of preparation, a long cross-country flight and an inexperienced second-year quarterback would be running the show. The 49ers were favored to win this game. The 1-11 49ers!
But a customary 14-0 lead eventually evaporated into thin air. Colin Kaepernick completed just 2/11 passes in the second half and overtime for 4 yards. Hey, maybe behind closed doors, Kelly can say he went conservative because he doesn’t have a quarterback who can complete passes. In eight starts, Kap’s completion percentage has hit 60 just twice. Still, Kelly refused to go for the kill shot, which let the Jets hang around and eventually win. The wheels fell off the bus, again. A career-high day from Hyde couldn’t even save the 49ers.
Of course, Kelly’s normally shabby offense was down to the soil. Torrey Smith (concussion), Vance McDonald (shoulder), Daniel Kilgore (leg) and Joe Staley (hamstring). Kelly told reporters that played into his decision-making.
“I just really wasn’t confident,” Kelly said. “You lost Vance. You lost Torrey. You’ve got two new guys in there on the offensive line. I was making sure we were good with protection. They were bringing a lot of zero blitzes. You’ve got to get the ball off quick. Make sure that we’ve got the guys picked up, but yeah that’s on me.”
The only thing more injured right now is the psyche of this tortured football team. Again, do you keep Chip Kelly for the sake of continuity?
Let’s first acknowledge his few successes: His handling of Kaepernick’s protest, his ability to score first quarter touchdowns with regularity and his stronghold on the locker room all are real. The players do not want to see Kelly fired.
“He’s our coach. The same way he believes in us we believe in him,” Antoine Bethea said. “We started this season together, we are going to finish together.”
His failures are stacking up, though. Mismanaging Kaepernick’s August workload with the training staff put Blaine Gabbert on the field six weeks longer than he should’ve been. Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil was left alone on an island, working with a head coach who focuses almost exclusively on offense. Despite Sunday’s monster game from Hyde, the 49ers still haven’t been able to establish the smash-mouth identity Kelly talked about bringing with him to San Francisco. They don’t have an identity at all.
The good news for Kelly, is that if he’s back in 2017, there will literally be nowhere to go but up. A 5-11 record next year will feel like 9-7 compared to what’s happened in 2016.
The bad news is lurking from multiple corners of the facility, though. Should he survive a first meeting with the York family, he’ll have to survive a second one with whoever the incoming general manager is. He’ll be praying the choice is assistant GM Tom Gamble, his buddy from Philly.
But the further along we get into this season, the more it looks like that said GM will be able to find an NFL coach he trusts more to win football games.