LeSean McCoy knew that he didn't score on the 1-yard run up the middle late in the first half. However, he was close enough to the goal line that the NFL Replay Assistant wanted to check the spot.
Five minutes later, the ruling on the field was upheld. However, head coach Andy Reid and the players noticed that the ball had been moved back from its original placement. The problem is that the play that was called was designed for the original spot, which was basically just inches short of the goal line.
Head coach Andy Reid wanted an explanation. Meanwhile, the play clock is running. By the time the play was called, there were fewer than 10 seconds left on the play clock - not enough time to get the play off. The problem is that the Eagles already called a time out. A team can't call two in a row. The Eagles were slapped with a delay of game penalty. Instead of fourth-and-goal from the Redskins' 1-yard line it was now fourth-and-goal from the 6. The Eagles settled for a David Akers field goal, but those four missed potential points could have made a difference on the final drive of the game.
"I take full responsibility, in particular for what happened at the end of the first half," Reid said. "I thought the play initially started out as (fourth-and-) inches, but after the review, the play we had for inches ended up being a yard, and the clock was well into it when we were aware of that. That is my responsibility, and there are no excuses for it at all."
Quarterback Kevin Kolb said that by the time he got the new play call there just wasn't enough time to make it happen.
"When they came back and said (McCoy) didn't get in they placed the ball at a certain spot. We had a play call with that spot. And then they moved the ball back and we went to get our next play call in and by the time I got the play call and was coming back in - I mean we were on the sideline and by the time we were coming back in - I want to say when I was running out there, there were eight seconds left, somewhere around there, 10 to eight seconds left, and obviously I didn't have time to call it and execute before the play clock went off," Kolb said.
Tight end Brent Celek said that the whole chain of events was a "debacle."
"That definitely killed our momentum. We still scored and we're still confident, but you ultimately want a touchdown right there," Celek said. "It stinks, but those things happen in games and we've got to move on."
Reid took the blame for what happened. All the Eagles can do now is prepare for a San Francisco team that is going to be hungry for its first win of the season.
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 11:20 p.m., October 3
