San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly was asked today why he thinks his team gets outplayed in the second half of games and why he gets outcoached.
"For us as a group, we need to do a better job of playing a complete football game," Kelly answered. "If there's one thing that you could point it at, it's 'Hey, it's this. Let's just make a change and do that.' But I think it's a combination of a lot of things.
"Like I just mentioned earlier to an earlier question, we had a couple of drops there in the third quarter that would have kept us on the field for certain drives and we didn't stay on the field for certain drives. Obviously, some of those drives on the defensive side of the ball, we're doing a good job, but we got some missed tackles that are involved in there. So, it's coaching and players."
Kelly insisted that the 49ers coaching staff makes adjustments in the second half. Following Sunday's 45-16 blowout, Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan stated that they did not need to make a whole lot of halftime adjustments against the 49ers offense and that the Bills defense just needed to play better.
Did the 49ers scheme change going against the Bills? "Yeah, I think we changed a little bit going into this game," Kelly said. "We kind of simplified the plan going into this game against Buffalo because you're playing against a multiple look team."
Kelly said that the simplified plan was done to give the 49ers players more opportunities. "That was our conscious effort going into this game," Kelly continued. "We've just got to sustain it. I think there's a couple of positions that we don't have a ton of depth at. They're probably playing too much at our inside linebacker spot. We need to rotate more at the linebacker spot. After losing NaVorro [Bowman] and after losing Ray-Ray [Armstrong] there, we just – [Nick] Bellore and [Michael] Wilhoite and [Gerald Hodges] out there – I think we need to rotate and play a little more guys at the inside linebacker spot."
Kelly's 49ers have lost five straight games after winning their season opener against the Los Angeles Rams. It is the team's first five-game losing streak since a 0-5 start to the 2010 season. Many are comparing this team to last year's Jim Tomsula led squad, which won two of their first six games.