Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur addressed the Eagles botched replay challenge against the Packers Sunday, but ultimately raised more questions than answers.
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Jarrett Boykin has the most scrutinized hand and foot in the Delaware Valley.
In the first half of Sunday's 27-13 Philadelphia Eagles win Boykin hauled in a pass from Scott Tolzien along the sideline for a 36-yard gain but which clearly should have been challenged by Chip Kelly.
The replay shown by the FOX TV network feed showed-pretty clearly- Boykin's hand touching out of bounds well before his second foot landed in bounds, which should have been ruled an incompletion.
Kelly gets the recommendation of whether or not to challenge the play from the coaches box, specifically offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur who has been charged with those duties since the preseason.
"If we see something upstairs," Shurmur pointed out, describing the process of how the Eagles handle challenges. "Be it offensive or defensive coaches, if they see something that warrents challenging they'll get it to me and I'll get it to coach."
On Tuesday Shurmur danced around the issue of what led to not challenging the replay which is destined to go right up there with the Zapruder Film in terms of it's mysterious.
"From our view where we were sitting in the pressbox we saw two feet down and there was nothing we could see as far as the elbow," Shurmur explained. "Now, had we had the benefit of the broadcast where they were able to cut it up, certainly we would have challenged it but we didn't have that. We do get some replays at times but there are times where it's not that timely.
"We get a feed of some sort and I can't always tell you what it is. There are times where we get replays and there are times that we don't."
The issue of timeliness if certainly up for debate as there was close to a minute that elapsed before the next play was called and the network feed showed various slow motion angles. According to the NFL rule book, coaches have access to that feed without delay.
"It is mandatory that all clubs provide television monitors in the press box booths used by both coaching staffs," The rules state."The visiting team must be provided with the same number and size color television monitors as the home team. Each coaches’ booth must have at least two (2) monitors, one of which must be at least 32 inches. All television monitors must be high definition units. No additional replay capability is permitted other than that provided by the televising network.
"The network television feed used in the coaches’ booths will be supplied directly from the network television truck, minimizing the delay between live play and the broadcast. This feed is identical to the feed used in the Instant Replay Booth. Prior to each game, the Instant Replay Technician, a League employee, will be responsible for confirming that both coaches’ booths have the correct video feed."
Shurmur said Tuesday that the coaches box didn't have that benefit at Lambeau Field.
"We get the network feed, but it isn't always in time for us to do anything about it," Shurmur said. "We did see a replay but on the first one we saw it wasn't anything that was significant."
Had the feed been available, Shurmur says without question he would have advised Kelly to throw the flag.
"Absolutely [we would have challenged]," He said. "If we would have had the benefit of seeing everything that you all saw of course we would have challenged."
The offensive coordinator claimed that even if the Eagles had hired a member of their personnel to exclusively watch the network feed during the game, he wouldn't have been able to see the replay in a timely enough fashion for it to make a difference.
Whether it was the ghost of Vince Lombardi, some Lambeau magic, or simply Shurmur and company dropping the ball something went wrong Sunday and the Eagles were fortunate that the play did not ultimately cost them the game.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
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