When Eagles center Jason Kelce was called for a false start just before his team appeared set to pick up an easy “tush push” first down, there were plenty of complaints that it was a bad call. But after the game, Kelce offered no such complaints.
Kelce said that he has been warned many times not to move the ball forward before snapping it, and this time the officials stopped with the warnings and threw the flag. “They’ve been warning me of that for years,” Kelce said. “I had a tendency to do that in the past so they’ve definitely warned me before. I’ve got to be smarter, especially in that situation.”
Kelce said that because it was third-and-inches, the officials weren’t going to tolerate him moving the ball forward at all, as that would be basically moving the ball across the line to gain. Kelce thinks that if it hadn’t been such a short-yardage situation, the officials would have let it go.
“I think if that’s a full yard to gain, probably not as much, but because it was so short, if I move it forward at all it’s going to be called, and I’ve just got to be smarter than that,” Kelce said.
The penalty was incredibly costly, as the Eagles were at the Seahawks’ 3-yard line and were probably only a couple of tush pushes away from a touchdown. After the penalty they had to settle for a field goal, essentially taking four points away from the Eagles in a game they would go on to lose 20-17.
