Here’s the Eagles’ gadget play from Thursday night, in all of its glory:

Didn’t come off, to say the least. The annoying thing is that they were down 7-0 at the time and had finally put together a decent-looking drive, only to go backwards on that play and then salvage 2nd and 3rd down for a field goal attempt.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was asked about it in his first media session since the game:

When you got to the 36, when you called the trick play, why do you think, at that point, that was the time to pull the trigger? (Brooks Kubena)

KELLEN MOORE: Just an earned first down. Any time those don’t go well, you feel like it’s a dumb play call. Earned first down, left hash, sometimes you’re chasing a specific hash to try to get to that play call.

Once we crossed the 50, try and be aggressive there. See if we can get it, and if not, play out the situation the rest of the way. Turned into big negative play and cost us an opportunity.

To understand the yards that could be lost in a play like that, do you take into account being within field goal range still? (Brooks Kubena)

KELLEN MOORE: Yeah, that was the thought process. Felt like there was an opportunity there. We had been hanging on that for a few weeks. Fortunately – poor play call on my end, but we were able to dig ourselves out and at least put ourselves in position to at least steal some points out of that drive. Credit to our guys on the second and third down getting completions.

Obviously, it didn’t work.

Time and place being one thing, you wonder if the Eagles even need gadget plays in the book. It’s always good to have something up your sleeve, ala Philly Special. Imagine if that never happened. But they’ve had success in the Jalen Hurts + A.J. Brown era with go routes down the sideline, so if you feel like you’re in position to take a shot, make that the call. That deep ball for A.J. seems like it hits at least once per game, and functions in the same risk/reward way that “trickeration” would. Dunno though, I guess it’s easy to criticize a trick play when it doesn’t work, but if it does hit, hoo boy! What a call!