Eagles to fans at the Linc: Shut up (when we’re on offense)

Eagles fans are, historically, among the NFL’s most passionate.

Eagles fans are, in the moment, among the NFL’s dumbest.

Over the past month several Eagles offensive players have hinted that the crowd noise at Lincoln Financial Field has affected the offense’s efficiency. Now, they’re going public.

Some can’t hear Jalen Hurts’ cadence. Some can’t hear audibles, every syllable of which is crucial. Some can’t hear the play call in the huddle.

The noise can get so bad that the Eagles have had to use silent counts in their own stadium. One lineman said that was the case during the infamous “Run the ball!” drive.

» READ MORE: Eagles fans begged the offense to run the ball in shaky win vs. Giants. Eventually, they got their wish.

Early in the fourth quarter Monday night, with the offense on the field, fans chanted “Run the ball!” — even when the team was lined up to run a play on second-and-20. It was deafening, and self-defeating: Two plays later, center Jason Kelce committed his sixth false-start penalty of the season. That ranks fifth among all linemen and first among centers.

He’s the guiltiest of the sinners, but they’ve been tempted too often in their own house.

The Eagles have committed 22 false start penalties, the sixth-highest total in the league. Fifteen of them — more than half — were committed at Lincoln Financial Field. Only the woeful Jets have more false starts at home. By contrast, the Eagles’ seven false starts on the road are tied for the sixth-lowest total. They are literally doing better in hellholes like Seattle and Kansas City than they are in the comfort of their own home.

That should change when the Cardinals visit Sunday.

Cheer as loud as you want. Just do so more quietly.

The Eagles are reluctant to directly blame the fans. They know that the wrath of such a malicious herd, fueled by talk-radio inciters, can be a heavy burden. But it’s a real problem, and they can’t help themselves.

After the overtime win against the Bills on Nov. 26, Kelce walked away from a conversation about his two false starts (which he completely owned) and told me, “It would be nice if you could hear yourself think out there.”

Of Kelce’s six false starts, five have come at the Linc. The center isn’t the only one hindered by the din.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni scorches players, grows up on the Eagles sideline, right before our eyes

“It kind of gets loud for the offense,” Hurts said after Monday’s win, with a rueful smile. “It’s supposed to get loud for the defense.”

The noise apparently kept Hurts from changing the plays at the line of scrimmage — a crippling handicap, considering the Giants blitzed on more than half of the Eagles’ snaps. Coach Nick Sirianni was not happy.

“Yeah, you can hear that. I think I would hear that even if I had a double headset on,” he said. “Sometimes we’ve got to let Jalen make some calls at the line of scrimmage. Maybe get that chant going, then Jalen has to quiet them down and let it go down a little bit.”

Or they could just zip their lips on their own.

Hurts routinely has to hush the crowd as he breaks the huddle. Usually, it’s because the fans are frenzied after a big play. Again, cheering is fine ... until they get back to the line.

The Birds’ faithful aren’t the only fans whose exuberance needs to be curtailed. Packers fans, the smartest in the game, often are admonished by their Jumbotron with a “Quiet: Men at Work” message.

Eagles fans? Not so much. It sometimes gets so loud that the players can’t even hear Hurts call the signals in the huddle.

Left tackle Jordan Mailata insisted that neither of his two false starts at home was precipitated by fan noise, but, when asked if he’d like less racket when trying to hear a play call, he replied:

“One hundred percent. I would love to hear the cadence,” Mailata told me Wednesday. He doesn’t like silent counts on the road, and he hates when the Eagles have to use silent counts at home. “People don’t understand the gravity of playing at home. Because we can go on our cadence. Maybe draw them offside.”

Mailata said the Eagles use a silent count at home “a fair bit.” Again, that included the “Run the Ball!” drive Monday. Mailata said he didn’t know what the fans were chanting, only that the chants made it hard to hear.

“I promise you, I had no idea what they were saying. They were just loud,” Mailata said. “I was trying to just lock in, not get any more false starts.”

Sound travels, too.

Landon Dickerson recalls road games in which Eagles fans, who are unmatched in their efforts to travel in support of their team, have taken over stadiums and made it difficult for the offense to hear. The Birds will gladly bear that burden. But when they’re at home, it’s an obstacle they should not have to overcome.

“I definitely see it, in the communication aspect — while we’re trying to communicate, make checks [identify defenders pre-snap], talk to each other,” Dickerson told me Wednesday. “I love the passionate fans. I want them to be loud. It’s a catch-22.”

He paused, and thought, and shrugged, and said:

“I guess we could just learn sign language.”