The NFL has banned plays or strategies for different reasons through its history.
Sometimes it's for safety reasons. Once in a while it's because a play becomes uncompetitive. Oftentimes the league bans things just for the aesthetics of the game.
The Philadelphia Eagles' "tush push" checks all of those boxes.
When the Eagles have faced a third- or fourth-and-short the past two seasons, everyone knows what's coming and everyone knows it'll work. The Eagles align with Hurts under center, with a couple of teammates right behind him. On the snap, Hurts sneaks it forward and gets pushed from behind by his teammates. Just about every time it's a first down or a touchdown. Even if it's stopped once, good luck stopping it a second time.
It's pretty much unstoppable, and the frustration of it has gotten to the unfortunate point in which people are wishing harm on Hurts.
Eagles run tush push better than anyone else
It's surprising the NFL didn't ban the play last offseason. Like plenty of other strategic innovations, like the shift in Major League Baseball, sometimes leagues tip their cap to inventive teams and ban a play or strategy for the good of the game.
But the play stayed. And the Eagles keep running it. Hurts was asked about it Wednesday, and didn't seem to care if it got banned.
But, until that happens, the Eagles are still going to be unstoppable doing it.
"I have no thoughts on it," Hurts told the media Wednesday, when asked if the tush push should be banned. "We're the only people that are doing it as well as we are. There was a guy who wanted me hurt for it, too."
Hurts didn't clarify what he meant by the last comment. Though Wednesday, Chris Simms of NBC Sports said that if he was a defensive coach he'd be asking his players to go "headhunting" on the quarterback. Yikes.
Nobody, except maybe Simms, is saying the Eagles are doing anything wrong. It's within the rules and the Eagles take advantage of it.
Maybe it will take an injury to get the NFL's competition committee to reconsider. There seems to be a reasonable risk of injury when a large man is being pushed from behind into a scrum of much larger men. It's not a play that has a lot of suspense, after the Eagles run it over and over to success.
Then again, maybe if you ban the push, the Eagles would still be as good at quarterback sneaks. Having a quarterback with an insanely strong lower body running behind the NFL's best offensive line is probably going to work too, as former NFL defensive lineman J.J. Watt pointed out.
We're going to see a lot more of the play this season. But let's not insinuate that Hurts deserves to be injured just because the Eagles found a practically unstoppable play. [Reply]
My problem with the tush push is the @NFL literally banned defensive players from pushing other players into the offensive formation on FG and PATs because it was a “Health and safety issue” but now it’s ok because it benefits the offense? https://t.co/BoCxRGmjsWhttps://t.co/osvitttlQ5pic.twitter.com/RrsV0omLWg
I've seen different teams doing it already this year. It's not just the eagles. The Colts, Jaguars, Bears, and Giants have tried it this year and its only a matter of time before they make it just as routine as the Eagles. Horrible and unsafe play for both the offense and defense. [Reply]
I really wonder if Andy has this play in his back pocket and is waiting to use it in a high stakes moment. No one would have prepared to stop it against us... throw someone thick legged like Bolton in there... defense doesn't know what to make of it until it's too late. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Why Not?:
How would you differentiate a rule that allows the O-line to push the RB down field but makes the Tush Push illegal? I guess you could outlaw all aiding the runner but I think it's awesome when the fatties are down field pushing the RB. If the Eagles play was so revolutionary and devastating they would've, you know, actually won the Super Bowl. As it is, I believe but feel free to fact check me on this, that a different team won it last season?
same way you cant tackle a qb like you do a rb.
Personally, they also need to make it illegal for offensive players to lead with their helmet to break tackles. [Reply]
What happened to forward progress? If the runner needs to be assisted, then isn't that by definition the end of their forward progress? With so many rules favoring the offense, is this really a play that the NFL wants everyone to see? As noted above, I've seen instances where the offensive player is being carried by the offensive players who are 'pushing' them. [Reply]
Those saying just stop it, rules have been put in place for years to stop plays that are unstoppable. I mean why not just let the wide receiver have a 10 yard running start towards the line of scrimmage like in arena football, well, it's because it's unfair. I hate the play and want to see it go away but don't see it happening because we don't do it. [Reply]
Assisting the runner is an interesting phrase as that could very easily be applied to any form of blocking as that assists the forward progress of the ball carrier by creating open space for them to run into. [Reply]
I don't like it because there's an inherent unfairness to it. And it's not this play specifically, but the 'push the ballcarrier' rule in any context.
The reason I say that is because of the Forward Progress rule. If a runner goes forward, gets stood up and the defense rallies and drives the runner backwards, the runner gets the ball at the forwardmost spot.
But if that same runner gets stood up and his OFFENSE rallies and drives him FORWARD, he gets the benefit of that added yardage.
If the idea of a ruby scrum can exist to create added yardage, it should be allowed to exist in a way that takes yardage OFF the board. But it very clearly does not.
It's a one-way rule and that just annoys me. [Reply]
Couldn't they just say that a player taking the snap from under center can't be assisted? That would address the safety issue and the difficulty of enforcing it on non-sneak plays. [Reply]