Eagles Zach Ertz catches a 35-yard TD pass from Mark Sanchez in the third quarter of the Birds 24-14 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Photo by Jesse Simmers/ contrastphotography.com

If anything came out of the Eagles 24-14 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks is that the Birds can play defensive football at the NFL elite level, they were solid on special teams, now they need to run their offense at the top level.

The Seattle defense held the Eagles to just 57 yards net rushing and 96 yards through the air for the game.

Chip Kelly was asked if he thought anyone could hold his offense in check to this level.

“Obviously, no,” He said at his post game press conference. “You go into the game with a game plan thinking you can execute, but I’ll give them credit. They did a hell of a job on defense and played better than us today.”

Kelly was asked about his game plan. He said last week the Seahawks secondary was good.

“We tried to establish the run,” said Kelly whose team fell to 9-4 but remained on top of the NFC East. “I thought we could do a better job up front. Obviously, we didn’t get that started the way we wanted to get it started and they did a good job. We had a couple shots there. We got them with [TE Zach] Ertz on one play, but besides that, there wasn’t a lot to write home about offensively today.”

The Eagles jumped out to to a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter after Seahawks punter Jon Ryan fumbled what looked like a good snap from their 38-yard line. Zach Ertz recovered on the run and the ensuing jailbreak landed the ball at the Seattle 14-yard line.

It took six plays to get to the end zone where Jeremy Maclin scored on a one-yard pass from Mark Sanchez.

Seattle (9-4) scored on the second play of the second quarter when quarterback Russell Wilson raced around the left side of his line on a planned run and went 26 yards untouched to tie the game.

The Seahawks took a lead they would not give back on their last drive of the first half.

Wilson led his team on a 10-play, 41-yard drive that stalled at the Eagles 26-yard line with seven ticks of the clock left but Steven Hauschka drilled a 44-yard field to make the score 10-7 at the half.

The Eagles and their fans had to be happy with the game at that point.

The game was a tight, hard-hitting affair and the Birds defense had kept Marshawn Lynch in check with 39 yards on 12 carries.

But that hope ended on the very first play from scrimmage to start the third quarter when LeSean McCoy fumbled, giving the ball to Seattle at the 19-yard line.

Seattle score on a 15-yard pass from Wilson to Lynch making the score 17-7.

The Eagles answered on their next possession with a four-play, 54-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard Sanchez-to-Ertz strike that made the score 17-14.

But Wilson would not be outdone.

The third-year starter led his team on an impressive five-play, 91-yard drive that was capped off with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin to make the score as it would end, 24-14.

Both defenses were physical and effective for the most part.

Lynch ended with a pedestrian 86 yards on 23 carries on the ground. He did catch five passes for 27 yards and a score.

The Eagles defense sacked Wilson twice and registered seven tackles for loss.

Wilson was the difference though, for the Seahawks’ offense, going 22 of 37 for 263 yards, two touchdown passes and no interceptions. He rushed 10 times for 48 yards and another TD.

Seattle sacked Sanchez three times and notched five tackles for loss as a team.

Sanchez, who has been starting in place of Nick Foles who is out with a shoulder injury, was as anemic as the Birds rushing attack completing just 10 of 20 passes for 96 yards, two touchdown passes and an interception.

McCoy finished the game with a less-than-pedestrian 50 yards on 17 carries, but set a franchise record for career rushing yards with 6,541, surpassing Wilbert Montgomery’s franchise record of 6,538 yards.

Tackle Lane Johnson did not have much of an explanation for the Eagles poor showing offensively.

“I don’t know, I felt like they (Seattle) played pretty basic compared to what we’d seen,” Johnson said. “This just goes down to execution. We had some good looks, we just couldn’t get it done. I need to go back and watch the film and see what happened.”

Linebacker Brandon Graham said it was just a matter of tipping your cap to your opponent for outplaying you.

“They played better than us on this day,” said Graham who did not register a tackle in the game. “I’ve got to take my hat off to them. It was a tough game. We both come in hard…it wasn’t like the effort wasn’t there. We just gave up some turnovers that shouldn’t happen that we need to correct as a whole. It was just their day.”

Kelly was asked about the impact of McCoy’s fumble.

“That was a huge turnover,” Kelly said. “Anytime you turn the ball over, especially in that area, especially when it turns into points. You come out, hopefully — it’s a close game, you can establish something in that first drive of the second half and then kind of get some momentum going on your side, but that really hurt at that point in time.”

McCoy took responsibility for the turnover.

“Just bad ball security,” he said. “I kind of hit the hole, there was a guy getting off a block and I tried to jump out and held the ball too low. And he (K.J. Wright) hit the ball.

“Obviously it was terrible timing,” McCoy continued. “That was my fault. I should have just been more aware of ball security. The situation of the game, trying to come back and to get a turnover that fast, that was really bad. So that is something that’s on me. I just think today I didn’t play well at all. It was probably one of my worst games up to date, since being here. Just need to get better.”

Every player asked said they would like the opportunity to play the Seahawks in the postseason.

Kelly was reminded about his previous quote, ‘Praise and blame is all the same,’ and that’s the message he tells the team as well. Kelly was asked how he can keep the team at that level that you want, as opposed to them riding the emotions of a win or a loss.

“I just think they understand it,” Kelly said. “It doesn’t define you. Someone says that you played well and you’re real happy about it and then someone says you play poorly. I think you have to answer to yourself. You know how well you played and you know how you performed on a given day. You’re going to have days where you’re really successful and we’ve had days like that. We’re going to have days where it doesn’t work out the way you want it to work out.

“But if you’re going to pack your bags after that and take your ball and go home, I don’t think we have a group like that. I think this team has good resolve and I expect them to be flying high when they get in here tomorrow and get ready to go. There’s no better thing to get their attention than playing the Dallas Cowboys at home in the Linc in front of our crowd, so I think they will be fired up for it.”