Jason Kelce on the Eagles’ controversial third-down pass: ‘It was the perfect play call’

Kelce was all over South Philly on Monday night, but had already left the broadcast booth before he got a chance to weigh in on his former team’s collapse.

Jason Kelce at Xfinity Live as part of ESPN's Monday Night Football coverage. Monday, September 16, 2024.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

by Gabriela Carroll

Published Sept. 18, 2024, 1:32 p.m. ET

Was the Monday Night Football broadcast a bit too Eagles-heavy? Probably, but Jason Kelce’s not apologizing.

Just as the night wound down and the Birds collapsed against the Falcons, Kelce disappeared from the broadcast booth, in a moment Atlanta fans wanted to hear from him.

“Atlanta had to deal with me for four hours before things got rough for the Eagles, and they were like, ‘Oh no, come back in the booth, Jason. Where are you at now?’” Kelce told his brother Travis on Wednesday’s episode of New Heights.

Jason extended his stay in the booth with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck past the end of the third quarter into the fourth, but ultimately left before the final two drives of the game.

But on the podcast, Kelce said the decision to throw on third down late in the game, which has been a hot topic around these parts all week, was a “perfect play call” and that it was just unfortunate that Saquon Barkley missed the catch.

“That’s only going to be thrown if it’s wide-open, which it was,” Kelce said on the podcast. “Like, it was the perfect play call, and the percentage chance that a wide-open pass to Saquon Barkley gets dropped, I think that’s got to be pretty low. If you told me before the play we can either run it and we don’t know how many yards we’re going to get, or we can have Saquon wide-open in the flat to catch a ball and win the game. I’m probably taking that throw if he’s wide-open in the flat.”

Teams and coaches are gambling more on pass plays in short-yardage situations thanks to new analytics tools, Kelce said.

The safe call is often to run the ball, which has a higher percentage probability of gaining some yardage and keeps the clock running. But the better call can sometimes be to pass, which could help you pick up more yards — or nothing at all, in this case — and can catch some defenses off guard. But with the Eagles’ proficiency with the quarterback sneak, “it’s not even third-and-3, it’s third-and-2.”

“I don’t know, man,” Kelce said. “It [stinks].”