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Legendary NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth has a problem with the NFL rulebook, and he doesn’t like coaching do-overs.
Late in the third quarter of the Eagles’ “Sunday Night Football” matchup against the Rams, Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni was allowed to change his call of declining a Los Angeles penalty, which was offensive holding.
The new decision to accept the penalty came after Rams coach Sean McVay sent out his offense for what would have been a fourth-and-3 from the Philadelphia 14. When Sirianni saw the offense — and not the field goal team — on the field, he changed his mind to take the penalty and implement a third-and-13 from the Philadelphia 24.
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“I just don’t think you should be able to do that,” Collinsworth said on the broadcast from SoFi Stadium. “In my mind, it was clear: They declined the penalty, gone out — then you look, they’re gonna go for it; now I’m going to change my mind. You don’t get both sides of the coin. Now, yes, maybe that’s what they do. I’m just saying if you’re playing on the playground somewhere, you go, ‘No, no, no.’ You’ve already declared. You have to stick with that.”
It ultimately forced the Rams into a 47-yard field goal attempt that went awry and kept the score at 27-14 instead of possibly converting or missing on a fourth-and-short try.
The Eagles then marched down the field for 55 yards on 12 plays in 6:02 for a field goal to extend the lead to 30-14.
Did it really matter in the end? Not really because the Eagles won 37-20 to improve to 9-2. And did Sirianni do anything wrong? Not according to the officials on the field. But Collinsworth isn’t a fan of a coach communicating his decision to the officials and then switching it after he saw what his opponent was or wasn’t doing.
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