ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler believes NFL has a ‘big test’ officiating ‘Tush Push’ play for Eagles

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler noted this is a massive weekend for the Philadelphia Eagles and the future of the tush push. The team’s unique QB sneak play has been under fire in recent weeks, again, this time due to officiating issues.

Officials missed multiple false starts during Philadelphia’s 20-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs last week. The play, which is a pushed assist behind QB Jalen Hurts, was nearly banned in the offseason but didn’t get the right amount of votes.

In what could be the final season for the tush push, Fowler reported officials will really be cracking down on the Eagles, and whoever else runs it, during Sunday’s slate. If it’s still difficult, that could signal the end of the play once and for all.

“Okay, so league officiating sent a memo to all 32 teams this week letting them know that the Eagles’ tush push play featured some false starts from the guards, and that that play needs to be officiated tightly moving forward,” Fowler said on SportsCenter. “So I checked in with two different teams, executives and teams who watched the film and read that memo, they said that what’s clear is this play could be truly hard to officiate moving forward, and that this is a big test for the coming weeks for the league. 

“And then one exec pointed out, if you can’t officiate this fairly moving forward, it probably hurts the chances of the tush push getting approved for another year because the league voted on it back in May. It was nearly banned. It was a 22 to 10 vote. They didn’t get the majority. So the play moves on, lives for another year. I don’t know, it’s gonna be a crucial couple weeks for the tush push for momentum moving forward.”

In other examples of not knowing how to officiate the tush push, the Eagles appeared to have a touchdown late in the game vs. the Chiefs from Hurts, which was called short of the goal line. Head coach Nick Sirianni challenged the play, to no avail. 

But, they scored using the tush push once again on fourth down. Missed false starts? Perhaps a make-up call? Either way, the tush push will remain in the Eagles’ playbook for now. Ironically, top teams like the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills voted against the play back in March and wanted it banned. However, the Packers and Bills have utilized the tush push, albeit not as successfully as the Eagles.