Eagles' great start against Redskins falls apart in one play


By Sid Saraf, FOXSports.com What kills a fastbreak? Turnovers. Chip Kelly's Eagles came out of the gates against the Redskins on fire on Monday night. After taking the opening kickoff, they stormed down the field, running nine plays and never stopping to huddle. Things looked great ... and then disaster struck. On first-and-goal from the Redskins' four-yard line, Michael Vick's pass to LeSean McCoy in the flat was batted down by Ryan Kerrigan. The ball bounced backwards and DeAngelo Hall picked it up and slowly took it the length of the field into the end zone. Wait, but was that a forward pass? Several players on the field seemed to think so, as Hall was barely pursued. However a whistle never blew and on further review, the ruling on the field stood. Touchdown Redskins. We checked in with FOX NFL rules expert Mike Pereira for his opinion on the play. "The rule of a forward or backward pass is determined from the point the ball leaves the passer's hand, to the point it first touches anything else. In this case, Vick's pass looked parallel to me," Pereira said. "The parallel pass was deemed backwards here and there wasn't enough evidence to confirm or overturn the call. Therefore the ruling that the play stands is correct." Questions? Comments? Send them to lacesoutmail@gmail.com and we might respond in our weekly mailbag!