Howard Smith-USATodaySports
That issue of the Philadelphia Eagles playing too fast might not be an issue after all.
There was thought that Chip Kelly‘s offense would be too fast for the NFL, and that officials would have to slow it down. I mean, how fast can the Eagles really play? Well, Chip’s offense at Oregon last season ran a no-huddle offense 75 percent of the time. The NFL average last season was 12 percent — that’s fast.
There have been a few officials in town this week checking out the Eagles practice over the past few days just to see how fast they will play. Veteran official Scott Green spoke to Sheil Kapadia of Birds 24/7 about the team’s pace:
“What I’ve seen over the last two days, we really didn’t have any problem … Today, they were running 11-on-11, we were getting the ball spotted. It didn’t seem out of the ordinary as far as the pace.”
The NFL’s vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said a couple of days ago that teams don’t control the tempo, and officials do. He also said that the officials were not going to rush unless it’s in the two-minute drill. It seems that the officials’ biggest concern was being able to spot the ball in time. To be honest, some of those officials out on the field are not youngest dudes around.
Green compared the Eagles’ offense to the New England Patriots offense and if the Eagles stay at that pace, there will be no issue.
Here’s a thought: how about getting some younger officials to spot the ball? Just saying …
Joseph Hickman is a Philadelphia Eagles writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @phillytugger, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+
