KANSAS CITY — The tush push was a controversial topic during the offseason, and criticism around the Eagles’ signature play only intensified during Sunday’s Super Bowl rematch.
The tush push — the Eagles’ tried-and-true QB sneak with Jalen Hurts and Co. — played a critical role in Philadelphia’s 20-17 win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Hurts converted two first downs and later scored a decisive fourth-quarter touchdown on the patented play.
But many across the NFL community and later the Chiefs pointed out that some of the Eagles’ offensive linemen were jumping before the ball was snapped. The officials didn’t flag Philly for false starts on any of their tush pushes on Sunday.
One instance in particular bothered Chiefs fans and even neutral watchers of Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX rematch. On Hurts’ fourth-quarter touchdown, it appeared that guards Landon Dickerson and Tyler Steen clearly jumped before center Cam Jurgens snapped the ball.
“The ‘Brotherly Shove’ is awfully impossible to stop,” legendary quarterback and FOX commentator Tom Brady said. “And when you get a false start penalty like that, it’s even harder to stop. They missed that one pretty bad.”
After the game, Chiefs coach Andy Reid and All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, who’s right in the middle trying to stop the play, were asked about how the tush push was officiated.
“Sometimes you can’t get all the calls right,” Jones said. “Just because we see it, sometimes the official is 15 to 20 feet away. Sometimes they can miss those small things. We think they jumped multiple times. ... It happens. People jump all the time. If the officials see it, they’ll call it.”
“You try to get penetration is what you try to do to stop it,” Reid added. “Might have been a couple where they got off a little early on. But we’ll look at that.”
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during his postgame press conference that he hasn’t “seen the tape of it yet, of what they’re saying,” regarding the potential false starts.
Sirianni also pushed back on the idea that the Eagles were alone in potentially getting away with penalties.
“I would argue that they were in the neutral zone a lot and taking every inch that they had,” Sirianni said.
The Chiefs were called for a neutral zone infraction on a first-quarter tush push but were not flagged later.
“They called the first one to back them up. I didn’t think they necessarily backed up. So it is what it is,” Sirianni continued. “They’re going to do other things to stop that. They’re doing everything they can do. So there’s a little bit of gamesmanship on both sides with that.”
Sirianni has understandably been strong in his defense of the tush push, a play the Eagles have perfected in recent years while others have failed.
In May, the Packers’ proposed ban of the tush push failed to receive enough votes. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the final vote was 22-10 on the proposal, which needed 24 votes to pass. Notably, the Chiefs — who allowed a tush push touchdown in their Super Bowl LIX loss to the Eagles — were among the teams that voted to ban the play.
On Sunday, Kansas City certainly wished Green Bay’s proposal passed.
The tush push wasn’t the sole reason why the Chiefs lost. Patrick Mahomes was held to 187 passing yards while completing 16 of 29 passes. Travis Kelce had a touchdown catch bounce off his body and into the hands of Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba for a game-changing interception. The Chiefs lost because they didn’t play well enough.
But in a tight, gritty game in which yards were hard to come by, the Eagles had a unique advantage. They could convert short-yardage situations at-will.
“We drill it. We practice it. ... It’s a big part of what we do,” Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson said postgame. “It was one of those days where we ran it quite a bit.”
“From the moment we stepped out there, you could just feel it. It was going to be an ugly game,” offensive tackle Jordan Mailata told PennLive in the visiting locker room. “It wasn’t a pretty game. ... But we just grinded it out.”
Asked how much of a help it was for the Eagles to have the tush push in their back pocket — to have a play the Chiefs couldn’t stop — Mailata was blunt.
“It (expletive) helps a lot.”
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