Eagles 'called out' Packers' play on game-deciding fourth down, Josh Jacobs explains

With a minute and a half left to play on Monday night, the Green Bay Packers had a chance to drive down for a potential game-winning touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles. That didn't happen because they got stopped cold on a fourth-and-1 in an eventual 10-7 loss.

The embarrassing part for the Packers? A big reason why they got stopped is because the Eagles knew Green Bay's play.

The Packers had a fourth-and-1 on their own 44-yard line, and the call was a handoff to Josh Jacobs. Just before the snap, the Green Bay running back said that he heard a Philadelphia player literally call out the play.

"Fourth-and-1, they called out our play," Jacobs said.

When you're facing a key fourth down like that, it helps to get creative, but that's not what the Packers did.

Matt LaFleur called an inside zone run that the team had used several other times in the game, according to Jacobs.

"We ran it like four times," Jacobs said. "They called it out. Got good drive, push. The clock was going down. We kind of snapped it fast -- faster than we wanted to -- and they made a play."

It wasn't just Jacobs who heard the play being yelled out before the snap. During the game broadcast, you could literally hear Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo yell out the play through your TV at home.

"I mean, they called it out," Jacobs said. "We called our play. They said, 'Inside zone, coming right here.' So I kind of didn't want to run right there, you know? But yeah, that's just how it played out."

"Inside zone this way, inside zone this way," Ojomo said just before the snap.

The Eagles were definitely ready for the play, and they proved it by stuffing Jacobs. Ojomo yelled out the play with about 28 seconds left on the play clock, so the Packers had the chance to audible to something else, but they chose to stick with the play that was called.

If you're wondering how Jacobs felt about the fact that the Eagles knew what was coming, he was worried.

"As a runner, it don't ever feel good," Jacobs said. "I mean, whenever they know what we're doing, it don't ever feel good because it changed my mind on how I'm going to run the ball, if we're being honest. It makes me kind of guess what I'm going to do.

"Obviously, people are smart. If we got code words or whatever, you hear it a few times, you're going to eventually react to it. I mean, that's football. But yeah, it's never a good feeling."

By the time Jacobs took the carry, it was pretty clear that the play was going to fail. The Packers running back actually ended up losing 5 yards on the play because he fumbled the ball while trying to pitch it to Jordan Love.

"I tried to pitch the ball back to Jordan," Jacobs said. "That's where the fumble came. But at that point, it's you playing backyard football -- it's fourth down."

Jacobs ran for 74 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries for a Green Bay offense that struggled for the second straight week.

With the 10-7 setback, this marks the first time since 1991 that the Packers held a team to 10 points at home and still lost. The Packers have lost consecutive games, including last week's 16-13 defeat against the Panthers in Week 9.

This skid marks the first time in 48 years that the Packers have lost two straight home games where they held their opponent to 17 points or fewer in each game. When your defense is playing that well, the offense takes the blame for the losses.

One reason why the offense struggled against the Eagles is because Love didn't have two of his top three pass catchers: Tucker Kraft (ACL tear) is out for the season, and Matthew Golden missed the game due to a shoulder injury. Kraft led the team in receiving yards (489) entering Week 10 while Golden was third with 262.

With the offense now in a rut, it might be time for LaFleur to reinvent himself. The unit is clearly having problems, and one of those seems to be that the Packers have just gotten too predictable.