Eagles WR: Cowboys were calling out what plays were coming

Posted by Zac Jackson on September 22, 2015, 2:27 PM EDT
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Maybe the Cowboys were a step ahead of the Eagles’ offense Sunday because the Cowboys knew what was coming.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in Philadelphia, Eagles wide receiver Josh Huff said there were times when he lined up near the Cowboys’ sideline and could hear Cowboys players calling out what play was coming.

That’s not good.

In light of the Cowboys’ domination in that game, Eagles coach Chip Kelly promised everything would be evaluated before the Eagles play again Sunday at the Jets. Now, that probably will include how the Eagles signal in their plays and self-evaluate their offensive tendencies.

For Kelly and all involved with the Eagles, it’s not going to be a very fun week.

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108 responses to “Eagles WR: Cowboys were calling out what plays were coming”

  4. They have tells. I’m a fan, and even I noticed what plays they were going to run. Kelly’s offense is simple. I literally tweeted their plays yesterday.

    You can tell a lot about what type of play it is by Jason Peters’ stance. That’s the first tip off. On the flip side, the camera showed DeMarco Murray giving the Eagles defense the Cowboys’ plays, so is that any different.

    And c’mon, Josh. Sean Lee obliterated your run game. He certainly wasn’t standing on the sideline. He was in your backfield.

    This is much ado about nothing. It was just good scouting by the Cowboys. And any team that does that is well within their means. I mean, they all have access to coaches film, do they not?

  7. Haha wow trying to make an excuse people will believe bc of the spygate mess. Honestry doesn’t take a genius to know what plays are coming in that system especially when you only run outside.

  10. If all defensive players watched enough film of the opposing team and did “their homework” they’d be able to call out plays of the opposition as well. Period.

  12. Sean Lee knows your playbook better than you do. Sean Lee diagnoses a play before Chip calls it in. Can we start a Chuck Norris-type thread dedicated strictly to how big of a badass Sean Lee is?

  14. I assume this will become a full blown investigation with NFL leaks and false stories and will dominate the news for 8 months and cost the league millions of dollars, oh wait did you say the Eagles and Dallas, never mind, it’s not the Patriots. I forgot EVERY OTHER team in above reproach

  15. Replace the word “Cowboys” with “Patriots” and this would be a major scandal. The league would launch an exhaustive investigation, and would spare no expense in order to try and nail them…”for the integrity of the game”.

    Being that it’s not the Patriots though, the league’s response will be….

  16. Please. I’m a diehard and halfway through the 2nd quarter I was calling out the plays. Oh, and by the way Chip when you never have your QB under center and then put your QB under center-the whole world–including my 6 year old daughter–knows that you’re going to run the ball.

  19. You mean to say that teams other than the Patriots can actually figure out from formations and calls what is going to happen? Geddoutaheah!

    Seriously, aren’t these the exact words that players say when accusing the Pats of cheating? (The answer is yes.)

    I wonder if other teams are capable of this seeming feat of magic as well.

  21. I remember when The Ravens would play Peyton Manning’s version of the Colts before Ray Lewis retired. Manning said many times, “Ray Lewis was over there calling my plays at the same time I was.”
    A good student of the film can predict pretty regularly the plays that will be called. Add to that the specialization in today’s NFL where certain plays will only be called with certain player packages and it makes it even simpler. That’s why Ed Reed and Ray Lewis used to have as many defensive players as possible come over to break down film with them. It helped everyone learn what to look for, even to some players tendencies to have a different number of fingers in the dirt depending on what they would be doing on that play.

  22. I don’t enjoy seeing Kelly “fail”.
    Right or wrong his methods are creative and innovative. It took guts to put himself out there.
    He seems like a good guy too. Wants to keep his private life private. I dig that.
    I can’t stand the Eagles, but I have to say, I hope that they turn this thing around and make it work. If there was ever a time to take advantage of a weak NFC East….now is the time!
    Good Luck Chip!

  30. How is it possible to know other team’s playing without stealing playbooks? This is blatant cheating and it’s a disgrace to the integrity of the game. Cowboys 2-0*

  31. This is what Goodell has brought to the NFL: Distrust. He made such a big deal about deflategate that now every time a team lose, they will cry wold. Sad state of a sport that we all love. This is your bed Goodell, now lay on it…

  32. Replace the word “Cowboys” with “Patriots” and this would be a major scandal. The league would launch an exhaustive investigation, and would spare no expense in order to try and nail them…”for the integrity of the game”.

    Being that it’s not the Patriots though, the league’s response will be….

    ——————————————————–

    Didn’t the league responded … during spygate burning the tapes?

  33. Have they taken away Chip Kelly’s business cards that read ‘Super Genius’ yet? They can replace them with the ones that turn into sponge when they get wet (Rex Ryan gets a kick out of those).

  34. I can’t tell if people are just trying to be funny or not, but no where does Huff or this blogger hint that the Cowboys cheated. I am an Eagles fan and I just see it as what we were doing was too simple.

  35. I said the same thing sitting in the stands on Sunday. Dallas clearly knew the calls as they were completely selling out on near every play, and they were always guessing correctly.

    I don’t think anyone cheated…but if I saw it, how does Chip not see that and do something different?

  38. Huh, so I guess the Cowboys must have taped their signals somehow, stolen their playbook, bugged their locker room or otherwise somehow cheated, right ?

    Or maybe they just worked hard studying film so they could recognize the formations and alignments.

  39. This is absolutely impossible, unfathomable even. Tiki is flabbergasted! If ESPN and the NFL have taught us anything in the last 8 years, its that no team, and I mean NO team, can predict another teams plays unless they are cheating.

    So obviously the Cowboys had deflated balls, scrambled the head sets, filmed the walk through, filmed their practices, bugged the eagles locker room. Cmon man, we need to investigate the hell out of this for the integrity of the game. This can not stand

  41. You guys are missing the point. He isn’t saying the Cowboys were cheating, he is saying the offense is extremely predictable. It’s a shot at Chip.

  42. Huff and I have a lot in common, I too was calling out the Eagles offensive plays…..sheesh.
    Typical post game excuses after you have realized how basic your offense is.

  44. I can still see a shot of DeMarco Murray on the sideline when Dallas had the ball. 3rd down, in the red zone. DeMarco said “They’re gonna pass.” Sure enough, they did.

    It goes both ways…

  46. Most quality defenses know what play is likely coming prior to the snap. This holds true each and every season. On a related note, Chip’s offense is VERY predictable. However, his ideology involves having several options for each of those plays, ala teams that used to actually read the veer. There is nothing shocking here. Frankly, I would be shocked if most NFL defenses weren’t ready for Chip’s collegiate style offense this year…

  48. Somebody call Ted Wells. Suspend Sean Lee for 4 games, sat its for PED use and justify it as an uneven playing field. Take away their 1st round pick and 4th and fine Jerry Jones 1 million glory holes. Take the wheels off the party bus.

  50. #predictablegate

    Kelly has some interesting offensive ideas, but his ego makes him destined to return to college.

  52. Somehow Tom Brady deflated the Eagles ego……but seriously, it doesn’t really matter what the Cowboys knew…….if you have no O=line there can be no progress…….does anybody have the phone number for Evan Mathis or Todd Herremans……darn, I just remembered, they’re under contract with other teams!

  55. We’reFineThere says: Sep 22, 2015 2:53 PM

    I can’t tell if people are just trying to be funny or not, but no where does Huff or this blogger hint that the Cowboys cheated. I am an Eagles fan and I just see it as what we were doing was too simple.
    =====================

    People are being funny. I’ll get you up to speed. Basically, for years now, teams like the Rams, and Steelers, and Colts, and Panthers, and (ironically) the Eagles, etc, have whined and cried when they lose to the Patriots. They say things like, “we aren’t going to accuse them of cheating, but how else could they know what plays were coming?”. This is an extension of that. If knowing what plays are coming automatically equals cheating, then the Cowboys simply had to be cheating, right? Funny though, that the people who are convinced that the Patriots cheat every week, wont also believe this was funny business…

  57. Read the book, The Best Game Ever, about the Colts v Giants championship game. Unitas and Berry used to watch so much film together that on the drive to set up the tie on I believe a crucial 3rd down maybe 4th, Unitas and Berry hoped they were on the same page because of seeing a formation from 3 years prior in film, Berry ran the slant and well it’s in the NFL legends now.
    Everyone studies film, if you’re just trying to win on athletic ability, you are not playing the same game.

  58. Pointing and laughing. This is what you get when you hand the reigns over to an awkward , overhyped, college coach. This is Kentucky hiring billy gilespie to be the basketball coach. At the end, I remember billy running through the hallways of rupp arena avoiding reporters. Kelly will be similar at the end as he goes to Texas. The best part is there is absolutely zero talent left on this team and the eagles will be bottom feeders for years to come. just like the good old days. 0-49. soon to be 0-50. good job philly.

  63. dowhatifeellike says:
    Sep 22, 2015 3:29 PM
    Chip runs variations of the same 4 or 5 plays all game long. Not hard to figure out.
    ______________________________________

    What? You mean Chip Kelly isn’t the greatest offensive football coach who ever lived? I am shocked…

  65. We now need former Cowboys playoff opponents to crawl out of the woodwork and talk about their suspicions of playbook theft. Then maybe sweeten it with some unsubstaniated inuendo.

  66. I kept waiting for the Eagles to switch it up with the play they ran Murray on out of the shotgun, and waiting, and waiting. He literally ran the EXACT same play every time he was in the shotgun.

    For variety, they did run a toss play when under center.

    I guess Chip figured his “limited” pre-season playbook would be enough to roll during the season.

    Genius….pfft.

  67. Everybody and the grandma knows the plays…this is not college, you can’t have 5 plays as your whole arsenal in the NFL. Chip’s whole concept is doomed to fail…talent beats culture, and the good coaches know how to massage egos and mesh different personalities to form a functional whole. If the Eagles win more than 6 games this season, they’ll be lucky. He needs to judge players by heart and talent, not smoothies and measurables.

  68. There is an old saying in Texas “All Hat, No Cattle. Given your sterling performance in your first 18 games, you must be really feeling full of yourself. Man-up and just admit that the Eagles stunk it up on Sunday and quit trying to make excuses. If you want to berate someone, try your offensive line who probably could not have blocked a good high school team. Some how it is always someone else’s fault, not yours or the team. If you can’t admit your mistakes, you will never get any better.

    Poor little eaglet; tried to fly, but crashed and burned.

  71. in the two miraculous timed pieces from the commissioner’s blow pipe ESPN and SI, regarding the alleged shenanigans of the patriots i believe the Eagles, Panthers, Steelers, Rams all said that the patriots knew their plays.

    People believe what they want to believe and when it comes to the patriots they want to believe they cheated.

    hopefully as we see more of these stories, and see the Ravens use the same types of plays they complained about some sense will dawn on the NFL fans. AND hopefully then some of the owners will realize they were being idiots stealing draft picks and a $1 Million dollars from Kraft.

    Meanwhile we can only rely on karma

  72. Its called DOMINATION!!!! Just imagine if Dallas had not had a ton of penalties……complete destruction of the “Chip and Dip” offense of the Sheagles!!!!

  75. If this were the Patriots, we’d have a week-long media inquiry on whether or not the Patriots were wiretapping their opponents, or perhaps paying players on the opposing team to spy for them.

  76. Mort: “A source with knowledge of the league’s thinking says the league has asked for Sean Lee’s phone. The league is looking at suspicious texts sent by Patriots coach Bill Belichick just before the Eagles would snap the ball. The focus is on a Cowboys employee whose mother’s brother’s nephew’s father-in-law’s cousin’s grammar school friend is a Patriots employee who, following consumption of a Chipotle taco, spent more than 6 minutes in the bathroom-alone, with his video camera.”

    When told about the accusation, Lee said, “I don’t THINK I’m a cheater.”

  77. Eagles have a bad team and a coach that thinks he still coaching college they have to make up some excuse.
    Next week they will do the same thing say the cowboys are still giving away their plays.

  78. I’m always suspicious of guys that come into into a new environment, want to blow everything up and put their own method instead of just looking at what is already there that was working, and plug in the holes. The former never works, even in the office world…..As for people saying that Pats fans are making this thread about them. Not true. This is what players of other teams have been accusing Pats of doing for years. So Pats fans are just surprise this is not about their team supposedly cheating.

  79. What do you think of old Andy now Philly? Andy gave you a decade of winning and all you did was show disrespect and babble ” in Chip we Trust” for your overhyped college coach . There is a reason Chip has won no Championship at any level and is 3 and 9 against winning teams. Face it the reason we won the last two years is a terrible NFC east and players Andy left him..McCoy, Maclin, DJax, Coles, Mathis,Foles. But Chips ego couldn’t handle this and he took the heart out of this team bullied his way into the GM position and put players who don’t fit the system and have no loyalty to the team. Murray is on pace to have 88yds…FOR THE SEASON! That is pathetic. It’s not like the Falcons or Cowboys have great defenses.
    In Chip You Trust…LOL!

  80. Chip’s whole premise of having a handful of plays that you run really, really well is completely flawed. You don’t get to play Tennessee Tech or Washington State in the NFL. There’s no physical talent disparity here. You can’t run a play so well that it can’t be stopped. Playbooks are 100 pages because you have to run the play well while mixing things up and keeping the defense on their toes. You win when defenders can’t fully commit because they don’t know what’s going to happen.

  81. last year in Philly .. the Eagles players said same exact thing but they phrased it more like ” we were too predictable they knew what was coming” when u play division games thats the norm

  85. They didn’t know what plays Chip was gonna call. He is a genius so that would never happen…

  88. Sounds like a few patsies’ fans on board here….. WAAH! WAAH! WAAH!…. Pats are blamed for everything involving cheating !….. The Pats have never done anything wrong, Spy Gate was made up by the NFL ! Shady Brady was never judged as guilty, it was thrown because the procedures weren’t done properly !WAAAAAAHHHH !!!

  89. ROFLMAO!!!

    It’s called PREDICTABILITY and formation recognition. When Garrett was the Cowboys OC BEFORE becoming HC I called ALL of the Cowboys plays pre snap with about 95% accuracy and I’m NOT an NFL defensive player who’s been watching tons of film. Nobody NEEDS to “steal signals” when they know your playbook by watching you run ALL of those plays with your 1st string in PRE season.

  90. I am actually surprised someone from the cowboys isn’t screaming that the defender who squashed Romo, did it on purpose.

  91. dowhatifeellike says:
    Sep 22, 2015 3:29 PM
    Chip runs variations of the same 4 or 5 plays all game long. Not hard to figure out.
    ————————–

    True, but this isn’t exactly a new thing. The Peyton Manning Colts offense with Tom Moore was much the same. They really only had 7-8 plays, but each play had 5 options for motion (directed at the line by Manning), so those 7-8 plays became 35-40.

  92. Cowboys=Cheaters

    How come when some teams cheat it is ok?
    How come when other teams play within the rules it is NOT ok?
    This commissioner is really bass akwards.
    The NFL is just a big joke so far this season cause the fans can’t figure out any normality. SERIOUSLY: How can this occur? SERIOUSLY: Why doesn’t Goodell put his foot down and insist that each and every team be treated the same?

  93. Belicheck must have snuck into the wrong locker room to steal the playbook and figured since he had it he’d give it to the Cowboys.

  94. Make sure all you short sighted analysts viewing the current situation in a vacuum bookmark this thread for quick reference on January 4th 2016 so you remember who told you so.

    The team will finish 10-6 or better and win the division.

  95. I just checked with my friends in Philly and they assure me that the only way a team can dominate the Eagles like the Cowboys just did must be cheating.
    Now that we know of the cheating it is time for the commish to throw down the hammer and send Romo home for 8 weeks and fine the Cowboys a 7th round pick. Oh, and also ban Jerry Jones from tv till next Saturday, midnight.
    That’ll learn ’em.

  96. I started to read the comments and saw there was a common theme about an accusation of cheating. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think Huff was saying the Cowboys knew the playcall signals as much as the fact that the offense was extremely predictable.

  97. I doubt they new their plays how could they? Only the Patriots have ever done that kind of stuff. Those dirty cheaters. Everyone else is good boys.

  98. hudgeliberal says:
    Sep 22, 2015 4:15 PM
    Its called DOMINATION!!!! Just imagine if Dallas had not had a ton of penalties……complete destruction of the “Chip and Dip” offense of the Sheagles!!!!

    —————

    Wait, wait wait now…c’mon man haven’t you learned? When a team loses to a better prepared, well-coached team, the losing team has to yell “cheater” or “the fix was in with the refs” or “the league wants THEM to win” or something….

    They have to justify losing some way other than the truth.

  99. So Josh Huff can say whatever he wants because he’s an ex-Duck, but LeSean couldn’t be himself?

    Kelly is a scumbag.

    Jeffrey Lurie, give U. of Texas a call to make him the highest paid coach in NCAA history so you won’t have to pay him.

    Big money for big names didn’t work with Nnamdi. How will it work with the man named Chip Kelly but should be known as “Chopped Liver”?

  100. igotsanduskied says:
    Sep 22, 2015 3:00 PM
    You guys are missing the point. He isn’t saying the Cowboys were cheating, he is saying the offense is extremely predictable. It’s a shot at Chip.
    _________________

    Exactly. Pats fans are so desperate to find some shred of wrongdoing by another team just so they can say “see we’re not the only ones that cheat”.

    Fact is, even if Huff was accusing the Cowboys of cheating, he doesn’t have six years (that we know of) of evidence to back up his claim like they did against the Patriots.

  102. 2 Games in and your all here to gloat about the Cowboys and how great they are? Really? Remember Thanksgiving Day last season when your team looked like trash?

    Look at the history between these two, the winner of the second game typically makes the playoffs.

    Eagles all day, Chip will warm up and this team will be amazing. Fake ass fans whining and complaining, then will say later they knew they would do well come week 12. Give me a break, nobody wants fans like that routing for Philadelphia.

    Did Dallas cheat? They scouted and knew the signs just as good as any team should. Chip needs to realize in the NFL, all is fair, cover your mouth and call the plays in like the rest of the league.

  105. Its not cheating. Chip Kelly’s offense is so simple in scheme its not hard to diagnose..especially when your STOPPING it in its tracks. Chip needs to understand that this aint college, he needs more disguise and much more technique to fool NFL defenses..or its gonna be a LOOONNNGGG season

  106. Of course this wasn’t cheating, but we all know the conversation would be different if the opponent was the Patriots. Yes, Spygate happened, but it’s also been ridiculously overblown and used to excuse away every moment of New England’s success for eight years now.

  107. There is no rule that says you cannot figure out othr teams signals. Anybody can see them, most cannot figure them out. If the other team can figure it out, its your fault.

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