The Eagles got the job done on Sunday night, beating the Packers 40-33 in a game that featured more twists and turns than Kelly Drive during rush hour.

They did a lot of good things and plenty of bad things as well, with the refs turning in a goofy first half performance too among their shortcomings a questionable spot on that 3rd and short in the first quarter. The play preceded a failure on 4th and short in Eagles’ territory, which head coach Nick Sirianni noted postgame was a failure on their part:

“What I was disappointed in in the first half is that the offense and special teams put the defense in some short situations. One was my fault; we didn’t get it on fourth down and I went for it. The other one, we had a fumble. Then the special teams one. So, all their possessions in the first half, they didn’t have to go the long way. With Aaron Rodgers, you don’t want to give him any short fields, and we gave him three. They made us pay for it.”

In a follow up question, Sirianni was asked if they have the overhead view of the 3rd and short, and why the Eagles didn’t challenge:

“I did not, and so those are hard, too and every time out is precious, right? We have to really feel confident that we’ll win that if we challenge it. We just didn’t in that particular case. There are things, like obviously I’m not seeing that and I’m trusting my eyes upstairs. They’ve been great all year and so I trust what they say. I think I’m getting good information from them.

Of course, sometimes, we don’t know exactly where the knee was and maybe it looks like we got it but can you tell with where he’s down and everything like that. I love the guys upstairs. They’re giving me great information, and then I went for it the next play with a very similar play and it didn’t work, and we put the defense in a tough spot because of my decision.”

On replay, it clearly looked like they moved the chains here, but of course the yellow line is a broadcast feature and totally independent of where the sticks are placed:

To me, it looks like the ball is over the (arbitrary) line before forward momentum stops and he’s pushed sideways. That was a big sequence there, too. If the Eagles move the chains and go down to score, it’s either 16-7 or 20-7 at that point, but it flipped quickly and Green Bay took the lead. There was also a missed facemask on the big 30-yard screen play that set up the Packers’ touchdown, so a couple of ref decisions there really impacted the flow of the game.


Regardless, Sirianni can only work with the information he’s provided from the booth. If they didn’t have that overhead view and/or weren’t confident it would be overturned, so be it. They followed up with a botched snap and blew the ensuing fourth down, so they had two opportunities to move the chains on their own, regardless of the refs or replay.