The Philadelphia Eagles’ 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday took the entire NFL down memory lane to February 9, when the Eagles thumped the same opponents at Super Bowl LIX. ‘Tush Push’ debates dominated the forthcoming offseason as league owners, analysts and fans alike wondered about its place in the NFL. Following their most recent win over the Chiefs, the debates are making the headlines once again, with Jordan Mailata and Jason Kelce sending their responses to critics, like ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday was a tight contest between two teams that are clearly struggling to get their rhythm in the new season. The Chiefs’ offense had a hard time figuring out the Eagles’ defense, while the Eagles’ offense was also far from lethal, until the tush came to the rescue. This has been the bone of contention since the final snap, as many NFL analysts, players, and coaches believe there was no win for the Eagles without the tush push.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter couldn’t help but point back at the point of no return, where the unique play was only two votes away from being banned, when 22 NFL club owners voted against it, needing just two votes from the 10 who supported it.
“The biggest thing here, to me is that this game was lost in March,” Schefter said on an edition of Get Up on ESPN.
“This game was lost when the NFL owners refused to ban the tush push from happening. It wasn’t lost yesterday. And there might be a lot of games that the Eagles play that are lost in March, because this play is unstoppable.”
Schefter went ahead to advocate for the officials as well, suggesting that the tush push isn’t just problematic to the opposition, but to the officials as well, who feel helpless when trying to make on-field decisions while the tush push is on.
“Not only does the defense not know how to handle it, but the officials don’t even know how to handle it. You see, the Eagles line up and jump offsides, every play. The officials have no idea. Defenses have no idea. And the Eagles get to do whatever they want on every single play in the tush push and again, I know people hate it, but they have mastered it. They have dominated the line of scrimmage. They don’t know how to officiate it. They don’t know how to stop it. Nobody knows what to do about it, and that is one of the main reasons that the Eagles can’t be stopped and that they’re 2-0 today.”
He concluded, claiming the play has on “life support,” and despite its chance for survival, it’s likely it doesn’t survive this time.
“We’re two games in," he continued. "Obviously there will be a lengthy season to still play out. Yeah, I thought it was on life support last year. It survived. I think it'll be on life support, maybe it'll survive, maybe it won't."
Jordan Mailata responds
Eagles’ left tackle, Jordan Mailata’s appearance on 94 WIP Sports Radio was a very timely one, as he seized the opportunity to respond to critics who have chosen to overlook other aspects of the Eagles' play but the tush push.
"I understand the outrage," Mailata said, via USA Today, referencing the efficacy of the Tush Push. "What I don't understand is them using it as an excuse to why we won the game."
"I think it's incredibly disrespectful to our defense and our special teams who balled out, and my brothers on defense and special teams who balled out that game, who had our backs when we weren't moving the ball or weren't doing anything. And say that we won the game off that, but not how our defense played and not how our special teams have played, putting us in those positions. You know, I think it’s bullcrap.
The 28-year old then went on a rage, attacking the claims of tush push critics, “I just think it’s rubbish. Absolute rubbish, man. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.”
Mailata was joined by Jason Kelce, who took a more analytic approach in his defense of the Eagles and their tush push play.
Jason Kelce defends former team
"People love to point out the false start thing," Kelce said on New Heights. "I think it is very difficult, when you see these things in real time, I think people don't realize how [it's] a fraction of a second we're talking about here. There's been alleging that this is an on purpose thing that guys are going offsides. As an offensive line, it's imperative that you get off on the snap. So you're doing the best you can to get off on it before the defender gets off on it... and sometimes you're a little bit early."
"They're going to be under a microscope moving forward. Everybody is going to be looking at this because of what happened," Kelce continued. "They're saying they're in the neutral zone, they're saying they're false starting because they slow it down to 1,000 frames per second. ... They need to be very, very cautious because the calls are going to be starting to come, and they should be."
The NFL season seems too early for the tush push to be getting a lot of stick, hence, it’ll come as no surprise if every attempt at it is meticulously scrutinized. But if at all the play will escape the “life support” it’s currently on, then the Eagles must find a way to take away the attention it's getting and practice it to perfection.
