Following Sunday's loss to the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly was asked about the second half struggles of quarterback Colin Kaepernick. "When you get down like we did all of a sudden it turns into a throw every down game and we're not built for that right now," Kelly said within his response.
Many perceived that as a possible shot at general manager Trent Baalke and his inability to give Kelly a solid roster to work with. After all, failures by Baalke in the draft and a lack of activity in free agency have led to a diminished 49ers roster and a 1-9 record.
Earlier today, Kelly addressed that perception on KNBR 680. "That's ludicrous," he said while on the Murph & Mac show. "You can look at our team. We're not built to throw the ball 50 times a game. That's not an indictment of anybody in personnel. We're not built to throw the ball 50 times a game. We're a run/play-action football team and we have a quarterback. We have a talented running back. I think we're good up front in the run game and that's part of it. When you get into a game where you're going to throw it every single down, we don't have that type of lineup."
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Later today, Kelly was asked about the comment again. This time, it was during his typical day-after-a-game press conference. Kelly was asked about the perception regarding the comment from Sunday. "I'm not really concerned with perception," he answered. "It's just a basic -- we're not a team that's going to throw the ball 60 times a game. That's just not how we're built. We're built to run the ball. Play-action pass off of the run game and that's what I meant. However people perceive that is entirely up to them."
When asked about the wide receiver depth, as he was asked this morning on KNBR 680, Kelly repeated his explanation. "It's just overall how our team is built," he reiterated. "We're built to run the football. Carlos [Hyde] is the main focus of what we're doing offensively. We have a running quarterback that compliments him and then our play action pass compliments that. When we're running the ball successfully and play action pass off of that, we're very good as an offensive football team. But to think we're going to go into a game and throw the ball 60 times and win, that's not a game plan for success for us."
Would he like to have that capability when they need to do so presents itself? "That means you have everything," Kelly answered. "Yeah, I would love to be a team that could throw the ball 60 times a game and I would love to be a team that could run the ball 60 times."