Upon Further Review: Eagles special teams finally buckle

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Eagles special teams picked a bad time to allow their first return touchdown of the season.

Already trailing, 10-0, in the first quarter, the Packers' Micah Hyde took a Donnie Jones 50-yard punt 75 yards the other way for the score. Josh Huff was the first Eagle down the field and alligator-armed his tackle attempt. Hyde was off to the races. The Eagles were down one of their two starting gunners with Brandon Boykin in the locker room being evaluated for a head injury.

"I think we had a shot with the gunner [Huff] to make the tackle," Kelly said. "We weren't in our lanes where we needed to be."

Hyde hit a crease, kicked the return outside, and beat Jones to the corner. The previous long that Dave Fipp's punt-cover unit had allowed this season was a 22-yard return.

Faced with third and 2 at the Packers' 5-yard line, Chip Kelly called for a naked bootleg off play action that had Mark Sanchez dropping 10 or so yards. Packers linebacker Clay Matthews didn't bite on the play fake and was unblocked as Sanchez turned to his first read - tight end Brent Celek, who appeared open. But Matthews covered ground like a cheetah, and Sanchez was a sitting duck.

"We tried to run naked, and then Clay jumped outside on both the tight end and the wing. Hadn't shown that before," Kelly said. "Good play by them. They got us."

The Eagles quarterback was sacked for the third time, and the Eagles settled for a 33-yard Cody Parkey field goal and trailed, 17-3, early in the second quarter.

About 21/2 hours before kickoff, Chip Kelly walked Lambeau Field from one end zone to the other. He was clearly checking the surface as he stomped the ground at various spots. When the game started, however, his players often had difficulty maintaining their footing.

Cornerback Bradley Fletcher slipped on third down in the first quarter, and Aaron Rodgers took advantage and hit Randall Cobb. Later in the second quarter, safety Malcolm Jenkins pivoted forward after backpedaling and fell to the grass. Running back LeSean McCoy, "Mr. Cutonadime," had several carries on which he looked like he was trying to cut on ice.

Conditions were frigid - a 28-degree game-time temperature and 13-m.p.h. winds - but this was no Ice Bowl.

"Both teams play on the field, so it's an issue for both [teams]," Kelly said.

In the season's first seven games, the Eagles had the worst red-zone success rate (34.8 percent) in the NFL. But they turned the corner, or so it seemed, in the last two weeks with Mark Sanchez at quarterback. The offense converted all seven possessions inside the 20 into touchdowns.

Chip Kelly said turnovers were the main issue for both the early problems and the recent success, but they weren't against the Packers.

The Eagles advanced to the Green Bay 5 in the second quarter, but Sanchez was sacked on third down, and they got as far as the Green Bay 15 late in the first half, but three straight incomplete passes forced them to settle for another field goal.

"We didn't convert in the red zone early, and I think that kind of hurt us on the offensive side of the ball," Kelly said.

Overall, the Eagles were 2 of 4 in the red zone.

The Eagles had some issues with quarterback-center exchanges on Sunday. There were at least two snaps that were an issue, including a poor one from Jason Kelce that Mark Sanchez couldn't handle. It was recovered by the Packers and returned for a touchdown.

"It's bad," Kelce said. "We've been working on it really hard in practice. I've got to fix it. . . . I think my snaps are a little fast sometimes, so we've been working really hard on slowing them down.

"It's very frustrating right now. I'm hindering the offense quite a bit."

Sanchez also took responsibility, saying that ball security starts with the exchange and that he needs to handle them. Kelce said that the mishandled snap that was recovered from a touchdown was "a little high."

Kelce's right hand was wrapped after the game.

Rookie wide receiver Jordan Matthews finished with his second consecutive 100-yard receiving game. Matthews totaled five catches for 107 yards and one touchdown, and they were not all garbage-time statistics. He caught a 40-yard reception in the first half and had three catches for 62 yards in the second half.

Matthews also dropped a third-down pass in the second quarter that was catchable. It could have led to points, and the Eagles were instead forced to punt. Matthews came up slowly after a hit in the fourth quarter, but he said he had the wind knocked out of him and there is no cause for concern.

After recording nine sacks last Monday, the Eagles had only one on Sunday. It was by defensive lineman Vinny Curry, a situational player who now has six sacks in his last eight games. He forced a fumble on the sack, just as he did last week. It was recovered by Green Bay, though, and the Packers ended up scoring on the possession.