Did the Pope helps the Eagles win their first game of 2015?

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly feels having the Pope in town gave his team some much needed help to get their first win of the 2015 season.

The Philadelphia Eagles were an absolutely dreadful football team leading into Sunday’s showdown with the New York Jets. After two embarassing losses and a complete inability to generate anything on either side of the ball, the Eagles needed a little something extra if they hoped to get their first win of 2015.

The Eagles got that, and head coach Chip Kelly thinks he knows where that little extra push came from.

Making an appearance on 94WIP in Philadelphia, Kelly proclaimed that the Pope’s visit to the city earlier this week had a little something to do with the team coming out and securing their first win of the season, beating the Jets 24-17.

While Kelly doesn’t necessarily say that it was a pick-me-up from up above, he definitely says the Pope had a little something to do with it. In particular, Kelly notes that the team was perhaps a little eager to get the game over so they could witness the Supreme Pontiff one more time.

"“That the Pope helped us? That’s 100 percent true. If you watched what we did in the second half, we were trying to get the game over quicker so we could come back and see him.” – Chip Kelly (h/t Bleacher Report)"

The Eagles certainly looked like a team inspired by something, holding the Jets to just 47 yards on the ground and picking off Ryan Fitzpatrick three times on the afternoon. Meanwhile, a change at running back produced 123 yards rushing for Philadelphia, with Ryan Mathews collecting 108 of those. That helped to make up for a lackluster afternoon for Sam Bradford, who completed 14 of 28 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown.

Now, Chip Kelly will need to take the reins back and offer some guidance of his own when Philadelphia looks to even their record at 2-2 against the 1-2 Washington Redskins. Unfortunately, the Pope won’t be available for a house call this week, but the Eagles will hope their is some residual blessings left behind in order to secure win number two.

(h/t Bleacher Report)