The Eagles were called for lining up offside on a “tush push” play on Sunday night against the Dolphins, but it appeared that the officials incorrectly threw the flag on left guard Landon Dickerson for having his hand in the neutral zone when they were actually looking at center Jason Kelce’s hand. The penalty was a mistake, as the center is the one player allowed to be in the neutral zone at the snap.
After the game, Kelce said that in the future, he plans to explain to the officials that he lines up with his non-snapping hand on the ground for the quarterback sneak because it helps him to get lower, and that they shouldn’t assume if they see an errant hand in the neutral zone that it’s a penalty.
“I don’t want to speak for the officials, I don’t know, but looking at the jumobtron it certainly didn’t look like Landon was in the neutral zone. I get it, they’re just trying to keep it honest, as much as they can, for the defense,” Kelce said, via Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. “Now we’ll probably try and stay ahead of this with the officials and just tell them before the game, ‘I’m going to put both of my hands down, so if you see another hand on the other side of the ball, it’s my hand.’”
Teams routinely talk to the officials before games about unusual plays just to make sure they’re on the same page about what is legal, and it’s wise of Kelce to do that going forward with a play the Eagles will continue to run, and a play that is rarely stopped unless it’s on a mistake by the officials.