Jason Kelce cut a frustrated figure in a tetchy interview with reporters after the Philadelphia Eagles’ shock home loss to the Arizona Cardinals on New Year’s Eve.
The Eagles slumped to their fourth defeat of the month as the Cardinals claimed a stunning 35-31 upset victory at Lincoln Financial Field, which dented the hosts’ NFC standing ahead of this season’s playoffs. It means the San Francisco 49ers have secured a first-round bye and home-field advantage as the No.1 seed, with footage emerging of their players celebrating Arizona’s win following their own victory against the Washington Commanders.
While he’s typically known for being one of the nicest guys in the NFL off the field, Kelce struggled to maintain that role after Sunday’s defeat as he batted away an opening question from a reporter in blunt fashion. When asked how frustrating the loss was, the Eagles center said snappily: ‘Pretty frustrating, yeah. Next question’ As reporters continued to field questions Kelce then went into further detail on Philadelphia’s latest setback, which has gifted the Dallas Cowboys a chance to win the NFC East next weekend.
He added: ‘Offensively we didn’t play good enough, defensively we didn’t play good enough. A really, really frustrating loss.’ Though despite their shortcoming on New Year’s Eve, Kelce says he is not ‘worried’ about the team’s run of form as they simply need to look in the mirror and cut out certain errors. ‘I think that we’ve got a lot of things to clean up,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t like the word “worry”, I think that’s a soft word. I think we just need to be more accountable and fix some mistakes.’
When asked if he thinks any Eagles players are not accountable, Kelce insisted: ‘No, I think everybody’s accountable. We’ve just gotta keep working at it. ‘Gotta keep trying to do your job better, trying to execute it at a high level, trying to know what your assignment is and everybody being on the same page. ‘I think everybody here’s working as hard as they can.’
Over the past month, the Eagles have played every bit like a team facing a potential one-and-done in the postseason rather than one that could make a second straight trip to the Super Bowl. As for the 49ers, Brock Purdy bounced back from the worst game of his NFL career to throw two touchdown passes in their 27-10 win over the Commanders. Philadelphia concludes their regular-season campaign on the road against the New York Giants this Sunday.
