ClutchPoints
When news broke that a mystery team, eventually identified as the Green Bay Packers, submitted a proposal to ban the tush push, it got fans of the Philadelphia Eagles going in the City of Brotherly Love.
Why, fans wondered, did teams keep coming after Philadelphia’s signature play? Was it because the Eagles had mastered the maneuver in a way others could only dream of? Or did they just want to come after the Eagles for dominating the NFC last fall, using the guise of player safety to go after a play that, to my knowledge, has never resulted in a devastating injury?
Asked about the proposal at the NFL Draft Combine, Nick Sirianni admitted that, frankly, he found the push insulting, as he believes teams are going at the Eagles for simply working harder than they are on a short-yardage package.
“I think I’ve seen some of the stuff about, well, that it’s an automatic play or that it’s not a… we work really hard. I almost feel a little insulted because we work so hard at that play. The amount of things that we look into on how to coach that play, the fundamentals is always there,” Sirianni told reporters. “There’s a thousand plays out there but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through and do with 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. The compliments that come off of it that create explosive plays.”
Interesting stuff, right? Well, wait, Sirianni wasn’t done, as he dug in further, noting that other teams have attempted the tush push at key moments and have failed to execute it, suggesting that the play isn’t as automatic as critics may suggest.
“You know, again, we saw in big-time games this year. The fact that it’s an ‘automatic thing’ like, we work really, really hard, and our guys are talented at this play. And so it’s a little insulting to say just because, you know, we’re good at it, so it’s automatic. We worked really hard at it, and you see it throughout the league; I mean, we saw it in the championship games, like, a team failed at it and ultimately didn’t end up winning the game because of it,” Sirianni noted.
“Every week, I watch every first and goal red zone fail, every single time, and sometimes, that first in goal starts at the one, and you see a team not be able to get in because they’re not able to do that, so I think it’s a skill our team has because of the players we have, the way the coaches coach it, that, again, there’s just so much time put into it, the fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles, people want to take it away, I think that’s a little...
