Just like the play itself, everyone could see this coming.
Now it’s official.
The Green Bay Packers have filed a complaint about how the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles go about their business.
Yes, they want the Tush Push banned.
According to haters of the Eagles’ go-to short-yardage play, the list of life’s certainties should now be expanded to death, taxes, and success for Philadelphia on fourth-and-1.
But pushback against the Brotherly Shove is based on a false premise.
It is not an unstoppable play. It’s not even the closest thing to it in the NFL.
Even after the PAT was moved back 15 yards because it was too easy and kickers made it 99% of the time, it’s still a gimme compared to the shove. Kickers made the 33-yard extra point 95.8% of the time during the 2024 regular season. Punahou product Ka’imi Fairbairn made all 20 of his PATs for the Texans, and in 2022 he was 24-for-24.
The Eagles got a first down or touchdown when using their signature play on 82.4% of attempts last season, which was lower than Fairbairn’s success rate on field goals. The Brotherly Shove’s success declined from 2023, after it already had from 2022 when it was at 92.3% in its first year of use with Hurts starting full-time. Even when it was at its peak, its success rate was still lower than the league average for a 33-yard PAT.
The decline each season suggests that some teams have figured out how to have a chance at stopping it, short of whining to the league.
So, what exactly is it about this play that makes it different from your typical quarterback sneak? By the way, all quarterback keepers on third- or fourth-and-1 since 2017 have succeeded 85.9% of the time, shove or no shove.
As the nicknames imply, the runner is pushed from behind by teammates.
And it looks more like a rugby scrum than a football play.
That’s it. That’s what all the fuss is about.
The way NFL rules are written, a player carrying the ball is not supposed to be aided by teammates. Obviously, that doesn’t include blocking for him. You aren’t supposed to pull him forward, and in 2005 the NFL changed its rule about aiding the runner and made pushing legal.
(Incidentally, 2005 is also the year USC running back Reggie Bush pushed quarterback Matt Leinart into the end zone for the final score in USC’s 34-31 victory over Notre Dame. By the letter of NCAA football rules, a penalty should have been called for what, of course, became known as the Bush Push.)
Chiefs center Tim Grunhard was called for assisting the runner when he pulled receiver Robb Thomas forward while he was being gang-tackled during a 1991 playoff game against the Bills. Since Thomas didn’t get to the first-down marker on the third-down play, anyway, the Bills declined the penalty.
It’s hard to find any evidence of a more recent flag for pulling, pushing, dragging, driving or otherwise illegally assisting a teammate carrying the ball from Point A to Point B.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts can squat 600 pounds. His strength, speed and size — and the guys blocking in front of him — are the main reasons he can get the 1 yard he needs more often than other QBs.
Football is a game of power and speed. It is also one of deception.
This play bothers a lot of people, especially coaches, because it takes the sneak out of quarterback sneak. Most coaches are control freaks. Unless they are strength coaches, they don’t have control when push comes to shove, and getting that 1 yard is mass vs. mass.
The Packers will likely claim that this play causes more injuries. That’s how you get rules changed these days.
Two players were indeed injured on a short-yardage play in 2023. But John Michael Schmitz and Daniel Bellinger were members of the New York Giants who got hurt when their team unsuccessfully tried a version of the Tush Push on offense against the Seahawks, and coach Brian Daboll admitted they had not practiced the play much.
Unless there is meaningful data regarding injuries, I’ll file the Packers’ complaint in the same category as teams that moan about having the score run up against them: Draft, coach and play better.
