The Chicago Bears took four defensive pre-snap penalties in the first half against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, and they believe they were illegally baited into it.
Bears pass-rusher Khalil Mack accused Eagles center Jason Kelce of turning the ball before the snap, goading the Bears into jumping offside. If a center is adjudged to move the ball before the snap, he should be called for a false start.
“You see the bull—- Kelce was kinda doing with the ball, just moving it a little bit,” Mack said, via Jason Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times. “But even then, you can’t really make no excuses. That’s not the type of group we have. We’ve still gotta get there, regardless of what it is and what that was. All those offside penalties, it hurt us.”
Coach Matt Nagy refused to criticize his penalized players after the game and suggested that he agreed with their criticism.
“I know what it was,” Nagy said. “There was some stuff to that. I’m not gonna get into that.”
The Bears had reason to be angry if Kelce was doing what they’re accusing him of, but the defense played fairly well overall. And Kelce’s actions, accurate or not, had nothing to do with how awful the Bears’ offense was in the first half.
