Dickson has done it a handful of times over the season with mixed results. It’s much less predictable which is why it’s not something you want to do all the time.
And it’s not a drop kick like a punt (you kick as you’re dropping it). It has to bounce off the ground first. You drop it, let it hit the ground, then kick it as it’s bouncing back up. You can even kick a field goal that way, but again it’s very unpredictable.
Yes the receiving team can call for a fair catch on a kickoff kick. But they can only do so if the ball is in flight. Once the ball has touched the ground, you can’t ‘fair catch’ it. That is why onside kicks are kicked so the bounce immediately. And touching the ground when it’s on the tee or here in the drop kick doesn’t count. It must touch the ground after the kick.
https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules/2018-nfl-rulebook/#article-5.-reviewable-plays
I think they didn’t have much of a choice based on the rules as written.
Actually, from the replay, a double-clunker.
My BOYS haven’t won a road playoff game since…1992/3. The 1992/3 NFC Championship game against San Francisco…that was the last road win (Super Bowls don’t count).
Wouldn’t it have been best to just place the ball on the tee and have the Seahawks punter kick it onside like a kicker would have? Even if un-trained for that, probably would have worked better for Seattle than what they ended up doing.
Possibly, but my guess would be that Dickson has practiced an onside kick from a tee even less than he has a dropkick.
Due to the new rules about how kickoff coverage teams can line up, and that they can’t have a running start, onside kickoffs are even more difficult to convert, even with a kicker who’s been practicing them – I heard a stat during the game yesterday that, before the rule change, onside kicks were converted at about 20%, and they’re now under 10%.
The League has confirmed that the referees got it right on review. On review of a called incomplete pass where the other option is a catch followed by a fumble, the call of incomplete can only be overturned if there was a clear recovery of the “fumble.” If not, the play must stand as incomplete.
Your Boys are going to be handled next week like altar boys in a room full of drunk priests.
I think it’ll be a lot more evenly matched than that. Rams have the NFL’s worst rushing defense, allowing five yards per carry. I could see Ezekiel Elliott running for 150 yards on the Rams, maybe even 180.
Parkey’s kick was tipped.
Can someone explain to me (non-Eagles fan) why Foles isn’t the entrenched starting QB? Is it simply that Wentz is more highly paid, and conventional wisdom dictates that the highly-paid guy must start? Because it seems that Foles has quite demonstrably shown that he is better than Wentz, and has the “it factor” that Wentz lacks.
Eeeeeeee is for Eagles…
BOO-Yeah! Watch us be the first team to win all playoff games by missed field goals. 
We’re up for anything new.
Saints are too weak from that bye week. (I hope)
Wentz is currently listed as injured. Not expected to return this season.
Wentz is the better/younger/more upside QB.
I’m curious why, after a game where he threw two interceptions and had a woeful 77.7 passer rating, you would say that Foles has “demonstrably shown” that he is better than Wentz. Foles, like most average NFL QBs, has had very good games (last years’ playoff run), and very bad games (his final two starts before the playoffs last year), and a big chunk of “Meh” games (most of his career before last years’ playoff run). He just so happened to have his very good games at very opportune times, ala Joe Flacco or Eli Manning. But overall, he has not “demonstrably shown” he’s better than Wentz.
At my wife’s urging, I watched my first moments of NFL this year - the final 1.25 qtrs of the Bears game.
What made that missed FG especially stunning was that he had striped it moments earlier, when the Eagles called a TO just before the snap.
I don’t miss having my emotions tied to some athletes’ performance.
Yeah, but it’s going to odd if the Eagles win again and release him/let him go to free-agency. That’s going to be a bar trivia question in about 10 years: What QB won two Super Bowls and was released the next year by his team?
I’m sure that’s not coincidental. I see it often in games where a kicker lines up and kicks as the timeout is called, and makes the field goal, then has to kick again and misses. A kicker spends time doing practice kicks and getting mentally and physically prepared for the kick on the sideline before it’s his chance to make the attempt, and you can see he’s ready on the first kick because he made it (though it didn’t count). Having to kick again ruins his preparation, and he misses.
There’s even a term for it, “icing the kicker”, and that’s precisely why Philadelphia spent their last time out to do it. It doesn’t always work but it often does. And Parkey is not the league’s best kicker anyway.
I know there’s evidence that the kick was tipped so it might not be his fault, but sometimes the timing or the way the ball is kicked can make it easier for a defender to get a hand on it, so that doesn’t necessarily absolve him of all blame.
Saints have been installed as a 9 point favorite. Geaux Saints!
Icing the kicker has been a thing for well over a decade. There’s even an instance of a coach accidentally icing his own kicker. Cowboys coach Jason Garrett called timeout in 2011 just before Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey nailed a would-be game-winner against the Cardinals. Bailey then had to kick a 2nd time, and missed.