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Kelly: Suggs' hit on Bradford wasn't on zone read

NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said Terrell Suggs' low hit on Sam Bradford was a legal play because it was deemed by the league to have taken place on a read option play.

Chip Kelly begs to differ.

The Philadelphia Eagles coach said Monday he believes the correct call was made on the field because it wasn't a read option play.

"No it was just a handoff," he said. "So not every shotgun run is a zone read play. We didn't run any zone reads. We had this conversation last year. We don't run as much zone read as everyone thinks we do. We're blocking the back side. He's not reading anything he was just handing the ball off. ... I thought the interpretation on the field was correct."

Kelly said he hasn't discussed the play with the league office yet. The coach said he felt a penalty was warranted, but didn't think Suggs' hit was deliberate.

What Kelly railed against the misconception that simple handoffs out of the shotgun are all read option plays, saying that Tim Tebow is the only quarterback who has run the read option this season for the Eagles.

"Every shotgun run is not a zone read play," he said. "So we don't run much -- the only people we run zone read with since we been here since this past season is Timmy."

It makes sense that Kelly wouldn't put Bradford in harms way on a read option coming off two ACL injuries.

The dichotomy between Blandino's interpretation and Kelly pointing out it wasn't read option exemplifies the difficulty in refereeing and classifying these types of plays.

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