Grant Cohn of the Press Democrat was a guest on 95.7 The Game following the San Francisco 49ers' 46-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. One of the many topics that he touched on was Chip Kelly and his offensive system.
"Gabbert was terrible (on Sunday), but I want to say that Chip Kelly was terrible too," said Cohn. "Let's not put this all on Gabbert. Chip Kelly has a reputation for being very vanilla and basic and that's exactly what he was (on Sunday). He ran the same inside zone play over and over and over again. It didn't work. The running game didn't get going and he never made any type of adjustment. He couldn't get his running game going. He's supposed to be a running game guru. Carlos Hyde had like 30-something rushing yards.
"It's on the coach to find something that works and if you only have one play, that's not the player's fault. So of course Gabbert was bad, but I think Chip Kelly has to wear this one too."
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Cohn was then asked if he thinks Kelly has learned anything from his previous head coaching jobs or if he is stubborn in what he is doing. "I think he's stubborn and doing whatever brought him to this point," answered Cohn. "I think that he's doubling down completely on his scheme. I think he thinks that his scheme is just genius and that the only reason that he didn't work out in Philly is because he didn't relate well enough with the big time superstar athletes."
Cohn went on to say that Kelly has a "very basic" scheme. "He calls very few plays," he said. "Very few running plays. And if the defense is prepared for the fast pace – the Panthers had 10 days to prepare for it – it's easy to stop. It's only going to run one play. I mean, how about two or three? Most teams run a power and they have a counter off of that. The Niners have a read option inside zone, a read option inside zone, and a read option inside zone. It's not that hard to stop if you're prepared."
You can listen to the entire interview on 95.7 The Game.