Pat Shurmur details ‘unique' week in wake of Chip Kelly firing

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It was a normal day for Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. Until he got called into the owner’s office.

“It’s been a unique week, as we all know,” Shurmur said Thursday. “I really didn’t know what was going on. I was called down to Mr. (Jeffrey) Lurie’s office on Tuesday afternoon. I walked in really not knowing what had happened.

“I was a little confused because it’s not very often you get called down to the owner’s office, and he said, ‘You haven’t heard, have you,’ and he said he had let Coach (Chip) Kelly go, and we had a conversation regarding coaching the team in the last game.”

Shurmur, Kelly’s offensive coordinator the last three years, accepted Lurie’s offer to serve as interim head coach this week after Kelly was fired with one game left in the season.

The Eagles face the Giants Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Both teams are 6-9 and out of playoff contention.

Shurmur led practice Wednesday and Thursday. He was asked Thursday what the last couple days have been like.

“I think it would have been really silly for me to say yesterday was a normal day,” he said in his first public comments since being appointed interim coach. “Let’s not call it normal. It felt to me a little bit, when we started practice, the first day when you cut down to the 53. You guys have all been out here and seen practice where it’s a little bit weird. Some of the faces are not there.

“So it started, in my opinion, a little slow. But by the end, they were all ripping and roaring and it looked like a normal day. I give the guys credit — they handled it in a very professional way.”

Shurmur, who has been an assistant coach with the Eagles under Andy Reid or Kelly for 13 of the last 17 years, said he doesn’t plan to change much Sunday afternoon.

“We started something in motion here, the players are used to doing things a certain way, and many, many of the things we’re doing are right,” Shurmur said.

“So we’re going to try keep it as business as usual as it can be in a very odd week and go out there and put our best effort forward to beat the Giants.”

Shurmur is the only coach on Kelly’s staff with NFL head coaching experience.

After 10 years as tight ends and quarterbacks coach on Andy Reid’s staff, he became offensive coordinator of the Rams in 2009 and 2010 under another former Reid assistant, Steve Spagnuolo, and in 2011 and 2012 he was head coach of the Browns, going 9-23.

He was fired after two years in Cleveland by longtime Eagles president Joe Banner, who was then running the Browns, then resurfaced in Philly as Kelly’s offensive coordinator.

Shurmur addressed the full team for the first time Wednesday. His message was that even though Sunday’s game is meaningless in terms of the standings, his players need to take it as seriously as any other game.

“We’re going to do what we have to do to win the game,” he said. “Basically, I just told the team we’re all very proud, competitive guys, men making a living, and just coaching and playing the game we’ve loved since we were kids, and it’s very important to show respect for ourselves, for our teammates, for our organization and for the game itself to go out and fight tooth and nail to try to beat the Giants.

“That’s the reality of it. And that’s sort of the moment that I tried to paint for them.”

Shurmur said he spoke with Kelly Tuesday, although he didn't say much about that exchange.

"We spoke like we do on a daily basis, no more, no less," he said. "He kind of told me what happened in the meeting, because it was very brief, with Mr. Lurie, as to what was said, and we wished each other well, and that was it.”

Shurmur also said wherever he coaches in the future — whether it’s here or somewhere else — he’ll draw heavily on Kelly’s philosophies and systems.

He said Kelly’s scheme and belief in tempo aren’t flawed. The Eagles just didn’t execute this year.

“I think in the first two years we were a top-10 offense in most categories,” he said. “This year, we’re middle of the pack. We fell victim to the turnover. We fell victim to the dropped pass. And ultimately, we didn’t score enough points.

“Those, in my mind, are all things that can be corrected. I think the core of what we were trying to do was right, especially for our team. We just didn’t get it done.”

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