Steelers' Cam Heyward: Eagles unstoppable QB sneak is 'illegal'

A few Pittsburgh Steelers defenders are speaking out on their podcasts about the play the Philadelphia Eagles used repeatedly on fourth down this past season. The play is a quarterback sneak where two linemen get under and behind the quarterback, Jalen Hurts in this case, and push him from the literal rear over the top of the defense. 

While a QB sneak is not a new play, the way Philadelphia executes this play is unique. The Eagles have taken advantage of the results of this new sneak and have become quite aggressive on fourth down. They even went for it multiple times during the Super Bowl. 

On his podcast Not Just Football with Cam Heyward, Heyward spoke to co-host Hayden Walsh and guest Mina Kimes, about the play. Kimes asked Heyward if the unstoppable play makes him angry as a defender.

"It's illegal, they're never set. If you watch, the O-lineman are never set," Heyward said.

He is next asked if the rules should be changed.

"I'm triggered. Yes, it should be changed, they are never given time, they hurry up to the ball and no one is ever set. They are rolling forward, I have this on tape, we can watch it. I'm always p----d off in these fourth downs because it's always so skewed to the offense. I'm just confused why they switched the rule, it used to be a penalty to push your guy forward. Nobody really noticed until the Eagles were like oh this is unstoppable."

Part of why the play is so successful for the Eagles is because of the kind of physical threat Hurts poses. He's stronger than most defenders. Hurts powerlifts as a hobby, and this has given him an incredible advantage on the field. The videos of Hurts lifting are the stuff of legend; he squats well over twice his body weight and bench-pressed 225 lbs at the combine. 

Heyward isn't the only Steelers player to chime in against the Eagles' successful sneak. On his podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience, former linebacker Arthur Moats talks with his co-host Deke about the play.

"It's tough, tough, tough. They're not (the first team to use this play) but they're one of the ones that do it at a high level and it was in the Super Bowl. Once again you see a play that looks like it's unstoppable. Because Philly started to weaponize it in this game where you really couldn't stop it, they would go for it every fourth down," Moats said.

Moats feel that this is part of a bigger issue in the NFL, saying they are forcing offense-heavy games on fans and hamstringing the defense.

"I'm like what's the difference? You want to ban that but y'all talking about taking away a hip tackle or we can't touch the receiver, you can't hit a guy like that. This is what y'all want, y'all want the offense to be unstoppable," Moats added.

He said that if he was the Eagles coach, he would run nothing but that QB sneak.

"I'm like why would you run anything other than that dang gone QB sneak? Because the way Kelce is able to barrel crawl and get underneath, that's your leverage right there. They're going to bear crawl Hurts over the top, that's cool until your quarterback's hit in the face."

Moats says that the Eagles are putting Hurts in a position to be injured. 

"You keep doing that QB sneak, your guys are going down low, your quarterback is sitting right up here, up top. Headshotted. It's bad, it's dirty, it's not a good thing but you want a person to stop running that play that's what you do. Because you hit Jalen Hurts one time legitimately in the face as the ball carrier, because that's what he is, you go down there and put that Riddell (referring to the helmet brand) on him like he's a real running back and I can assure you they would not be calling that QB sneak as frequently."

That injury potential is the reason he thinks the play will be made illegal. 

"The other alternative is when they start pushing you to find a way to get your helmet right where his knee is so when they are pushing him forward his knee is driving into your helmet. That's the thing they don't want. It is not the most savory but it's an effective way and that's why I think they'll change the rule first before they allow that because if I'm a DC that's the answer to it."