INDIANAPOLIS – Call it a Tush Pushback.
At minimum, that encapsulated head coach Nick Sirianni’s thinking when asked about the latest, ahem, push to ban what’s become a signature play of his reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. He even went so far as saying it would be “unfair” for the NFL to outlaw a strategy – the Tush Push is essentially a variation of the quarterback sneak, Philly packing in its line while Jalen Hurts is typically propelled forward from behind by other teammates – that’s given the Eagles a competitive advantage and decried the notion that it’s either unstoppable or that anyone can successfully implement it.
“I’ve seen some of the stuff (suggesting) that it’s an ‘automatic’ play,” Sirianni said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine. “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.’”
They’re certainly effective if not surefire.
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Since the Eagles started Tush Pushing with regularity during the 2022 season, Hurts has rushed for 42 touchdowns – two-thirds of those (or 28) from the 1-yard line, including 11 from that distance in each of the past two campaigns. During that period, Philadelphia has consistently been at or near the top of the league in converting third and fourth downs, never executing worse than 41% on third down or 68% on fourth.
Those figures become more daunting in short-yardage scenarios and certainly near the goal line. Hurts’ 1-yard push into the end zone opened the scoring in Philadelphia’s Super Bowl 59 rout of the of Kansas City Chiefs earlier this month.
But it’s not, in fact, automatic.
“It wasn’t a hundred percent for us this year, we missed on some two-point conversions from the one (yard line), 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 that could be under consideration at next month’s annual league meeting after the Green Bay Packers submitted a proposal to ban the play.
“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 Sirianni.
And one thing the competition committee – and anybody in the NFL – would have to concede is that the Eagles have built one of the most talented and formidable offensive lines in recent history. Philadelphia’s starting five in Super Bowl 59 averaged 6-6 and 338 pounds, the largest unit ever fielded on Super Sunday. Right tackle Lane Johnson is close to a Hall of Fame lock. Left tackle Jordan Mailata is quickly building his own impressive résumé. Center Cam Jurgens and left guard Landon Dickerson are among the league’s best at their respective positions. And with instruction from legendary O-line coach Jeff Stoutland and the positional resourcing provided by executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman, there can be a feeling of inevitably when this group is in its blocking groove.
Mix in occasional fakes the Eagles use out of the alignment or deep shots they’ll take on third down knowing the percentages might favor them on fourth-and-short, and Sirianni knows it’s a deadly formula.
“I think that it’s a skill that our team has because of the players that we have, the way the coaches coach it,” added Sirianni, who closely studies how other clubs use their own versions of it. He also noted how other teams’ inability to leverage the play – meaning the Buffalo Bills – was costly during conference championship weekend.
“Again, there’s so much time put into it,” he continued. “The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that way I think is a little unfair.”
Yet it can invite a chaotic response. The Washington Commanders repeatedly encroached trying to defeat the Tush Push during the NFC championship game – to the point that officials threatened to award the Eagles a touchdown. Mailata said the sequence devolved into ‘mental warfare.’
Some also contend that the play can be inherently dangerous with so much condensed humanity moving in one direction amid restricted space.
‘There’s always been injury risk, and I’ve expressed that opinion over the last couple of years when it really started to come into play the way it’s being used, especially a year ago,’ Bills coach Sean McDermott said Monday.
‘It’s just that play to me – or the way that the techniques that are used with that play to me – 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, but I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.’
It’s another argument Sirianni downplays.
“We’ve looked into that, too, there wasn’t a lot of injuries there,” he claimed. “I think that’s a little made up to be honest. … I can’t remember one injury we’ve had on that play, and we’ve (run) it more than everybody else.
“I’m all for player safety for that … I think that’s just something that’s said, but I don’t think the numbers on that play suggest that.”
He’ll know soon enough if the important numbers – competition committee votes – remain advantageous to the Eagles or not.
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