Chip Kelly addresses Pete Carroll’s criticism of his play calling

Things are already deteriorating for the Las Vegas Raiders at a rapid pace.

Staring at a 1-4 start, the Raiders have seen the same issues pop up time and time again. Head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly were brought in to fix the problems, but the Raiders still suffer from offensive stagnation. It has clearly lead to some behind-the-scenes tension between the two, which came to light during Carroll’s press conference on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Kelly had the chance to defend himself and his playcalling.

Kelly addressed the criticisms of his offense brought up by Carroll.

Using his opportunity to help out his offense, Kelly tried to point out what issues needed to be fixed.

”I think besides the one throw in the second half, Geno [Smith] was really comfortable. The
pick in the first half, it’s a pick and it goes down in the books, but he made the proper read and the ball
was going to the right spot and it got hit by defensive lineman. So, I think sometimes not all interceptions
are the same,” Kelly said.

“You’ve got to kind of look at where they are and how they did it. I thought in that game,
you look at that first drive, we had a 15-play drive that got us down there, but it was the sack that knocked
us out of it. It wasn’t the quarterback that knocked us out of it. And the next drive, we drive down there,
it was a tipped pass by defensive lineman, and we’ve got to get his hands down, and that’s not Geno’s
fault either.

I think when you get into the second half, you had the one interception that I think we can
put him in a better position as a coaching staff in those situations. But besides that, I think Geno is playing
really well for us,” Kelly concluded.

Kelly still has confidence in his offense, but they need to rebound in a big way against a 1-4 Tennessee Titans team on Sunday.

The Raiders offense has only averaged 16.6 points per game, good for 30th in the league. Quarterback Geno Smith has thrown a league-high nine interceptions so far, and other areas such as the run game have faced serious inconsistencies.

If things continue to head this way, the Raiders may have to consider more drastic measures to fix the offense.