“I think the Eagles have perfected this thing over however many years it’s been and that offensive line, I think they’re built for it…They could take that O-line and win some rugby tournaments. They’re that big and physical and they’ve really perfected the way they do it. I think it’s really tough to stop.” said Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said recently when asked about the Eagles vaunted Tush Push, their signature play that has become even more synonymous with the Super Bowl Champs than The Philly Special and even more frustrating to various NFL teams.
The Philly Special was iconic because of the timing and deceptiveness. No one knew it was coming but everyone knows when a Tush Push is coming but no one can really stop it. Just ask coach Spaguolu. His Chiefs are 0-10 in their last three games versus the Eagles in stopping the Tush Push, including 0-6 in Super Bowl 57 and 0-2 in Super Bowl 59. But the Chiefs aren’t complaining about it like other teams who have fallen victim to the Birds’ short yardage quarterback sneak on steroids.
The Green Bay Packers had trouble stopping it too, just 1-3 against the Push in the two games they played against Philly this year, including a first round 22-10 Wildcard loss back on January 12. But Green Bay is now trying to stop it off the field as they filed a motion in a proposal they submitted to the competition committee to look into banning the play as soon as next season, which is pretty ironic seeing that the most famous quarterback sneak in NFL history was executed by Bart Starr of the Packers in the famous “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game against the Dallas Cowboys back in 1967.
So the Packers, whose most famous cheese head was the great Vince Lombardi (yah, the guy with the same last name as the one on the Super Bowl trophy), are now coming off as whiney as a Sonoma Valley landscape. I’m wondering if coach Lombardi was alive today what he’d think about his team’s mind set to attempt to ban a play just because his team isn’t big enough, smart enough, well-coached enough or tough enough to stop it. I’m sure coach Vin would beam with pride knowing that the franchise that he built on toughness and discipline would come off softer than a walrus’ fold.
Mr. Softy
Mark Murphy, the Packers President and CEO had this to say on the team’s website about the tush push:
I am not a fan of this play. There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.
Didn’t someone say that already?
The Packers proposal also included a motion for a “five Mississippi rush” for defenses,” one blitz every four downs”, “two-hand touch of Jordan Love if he breaks contain”, oh and “no tag-backs” – Sheesh!
Seriously though, has the team that hails from the city that refers to themselves as Titletown because of the 13 World Championships the Packers have really gone Brie?
We Talkin’ About Practice
Birds head coach Nick Sirianni is at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis and he was asked about it on Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis.
“I’ve seen some of the stuff suggesting that it’s an ‘automatic’ play… I almost feel a little insulted, because we work so hard at that play. The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals – there’s a thousand plays out there, it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players execute the fundamentals. I can’t tell you how many times we practice the snap, we practice the play – because it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, there’s different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it.
“We work really, really hard, and our guys are talented at this play. And so it’s a little insulting to say, ‘We’re good at it, so it’s automatic.”
Since the Eagles started Tush Pushing with regularity during the 2022 season, Hurts has rushed for 42 touchdowns – 28 of those from the 1-yard line, including 11 from that distance in each of the past two campaigns. During that period, the Eagles have consistently been at or near the top of the league in converting on third and fourth downs, never executing worse than 41% on third down or 68% on fourth downs.
In 2022, the Eagles had a 93% success rate on the Tush Push, including 6 for 6 in Super Bowl 57. In 2024, the Eagles were 39 of 48 converting the Tush Push into a first down or touchdown, dropping a bit to an 82.4% conversion rate, still very efficient but not automatic.
“It wasn’t a hundred percent for us this year, we missed on some two-point conversions from the one, we missed on some third downs, we missed on some fourth downs. I think we were in the eighty percent range,” said Sirianni. “Just because it’s a successful play for us doesn’t mean that it should go away.”
But it will be under consideration at next month’s annual league meeting now that the Packers submitted a proposal to ban it on Tuesday.
“Obviously I’m protective of it because we’ve had success with it, but again I think that the competition committee will do a good job of looking at everything,” said coach Nick.
The competition committee looked at it two years ago and allowed it to stay as part of the game, mostly Philadelphia’s game, because every one of the other 31 NFL teams have trouble stopping it. They also all have trouble copying it.
‘Aint No Stopping it Now
Marcus Hayes, award winning writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News joined our podcast today, The Philly Pulse. which you can watch below. Marcus covers all of the Philadelphia sports team with a heavy lean on the Super Bowl Champions and here’s what had to say about the Packers proposed ban:
“It’s a stupid conversation because it’s not illegal and its effective. The reason people are upset about it isn’t because their defense can’t stop it, it’s because no one else is successful with it.
Think about this. The Eagles have invested $70 million in (Jordan) Mailata, $60 million in Landon Dickerson, they’re going to invest another $60 million in (Cam) Jurgens, whose a second round pick and Lane Johnson was a first round pick whose earned around $150 million dollars, Saquon Barkley who signed a three year deal worth $37 million and they have A.J Brown, whose a monster receiver is going to make $150 million plus you have your $250 million, 600-pound squattin’ quarterback. These are your Tush Push people. You’ve paid all of this money for this advantage.
It’s not the Eagles fault they they have a monster offensive line, a monster receiver and a monster running back and you can’t stop them from gaining a yard and a half. That’s not their problem, that’s your problem. Coach better. They spend a lot of time on it. I remember talking to Jason Kelce, who loved to practice but hated practicing the Tush Push. He said it was his least favorite thing to practice, ever. It was hard work but they worked on it a lot. Nobody practices it like they do and nobody else runs it like they do so quit your whining. It’s really embarrassing.”
Tush Push talk begins at 17:45.
Former Steelers safety Ryan Clark had similar things to say on Sportscenter on Tuesday. “How soft do you have to be? ‘Oh, we can’t stop it. Our defensive tackles aren’t tough enough. Our linebackers get hurt,'” Clark said Monday during NFL Live, imitating what he presumes are the complaints of other teams. “Shut the hell up and bow your neck. Somebody get physical and stop the play…It’s like everything else in sports: If you don’t have the personnel to do it, you actually don’t do it.
Clark went on to cite the AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills as evidence that you can stop a quarterback sneak when properly prepared as the still grieving, flummoxed and irate Bills Mafia will recall, as the Bills were stopped on four of six tries including a late fourth-down attempt that essentially sealed the game for Kansas City. Two weeks later the Chiefs would fail to stop the Eagles’ tush push in Super Bowl LIX.
What Did He Say?
Interestingly, the head coach on the losing end of that game had this to say at the NFL scouting combine on Monday (make sure you have your polygraph machine fired up and ready for this little gem from Sean McDermott). “To me, there’s always been an injury risk with that play…I’ve expressed that opinion for the last couple of years or so when it really started to come into play the way it’s been used, especially a year ago. I just feel like player safety and the health and safety of our players has to be at the top of our game, which is it.
“That play, to me, the way that the techniques are used with that play, have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players. Again, you have to go back in fairness to the injury data on the play. I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.”
What a bunch of Bills#%t. Really coach? So you’re basically saying that at least six times in the AFC title game you knowingly and willingly put your players in harm’s way? That’s either a very irresponsible job by you coach or you’re just full of poppycock.
But the Packers and the Bills aren’t the only teams pushing back on the Tush Push according to NFL senior writer Matt Lombardo in his Between The Hashmarks NFL scouting combine report from Tuesday. He caught up with Atlanta Falcons’ head coach Raheem Morris on Tuesday. “It should’ve been illegal three years ago,” Morris said. “No, the tush push play, I’ve never been a big fan. There’s no other play in our game where you can absolutely get behind somebody and push them, pull them off, do anything.”
Well sorry to disappoint you coach but the reality is that the Eagles have designed and almost perfected a short-yardage play by leveraging a 1,700 pound offensive line, a quarterback and running back who can squat over 1,200 pounds combined and a couple of prize bull receivers into the closest thing to an automatic first down as the NFL has ever seen. Coach Morris needs to pick up a rule book because there’s nothing illegal about the play and until the NFL spits out empirical data on an injury report germane to the Tush Push, that shows its players are being put at risk then most likely nothing will change.
The only other reason to make a change would be is if the league defaults to the aesthetics of their product. An NFL game is a 3.5 hour entertainment show. If the league believes it takes their product down a notch or two citing the unsightly optics of the play in question, then a possible change could be in order, or at least a modification perhaps of the frequency a team can use the play in a game.
This past season the Eagles averaged about four Tush Pushes per game which is about 6% of the offensive snaps per 60 minutes. Does it make for a lesser product? Not if you’re from Philly. But every other professional league makes alterations to their product if they deem it more inviting or aesthetically pleasing for the fans. A couple of years ago Major League Baseball gave their game a complete make-over as they implemented a pitch clock, bigger bases, limiting pitching changes and the elimination of the shift, and their product has soared in fan approval regarding their modifications.
For Bills’ coach Sean McDermott, who claims he has issues with the play because of player safety, let me help you out coach – not one injury has ever been attributed to an Eagles’ offensive player because of the Tush Push. There’s the data. But hey maybe the NFL data reports will say different because until the they reveal whatever data they have in terms of defensive players coming away injured in their attempts to defend the short yardage play, these proposals come across as sniveling, whiney, soft, infantile and like Marcus Hayes said earlier – embarrassing! Figure it out people. The Birds did.
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Nick Sirianni Insulted by No Love for the Brotherly Shove