Why the Philadelphia Eagles' 'tush push' play is causing such a stir

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The tush push has proved hard to stop, difficult to decipher and almost impervious to officiating in 2025.

When the Green Bay Packers last offseason proposed banning the play that was perfected by the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, the counterargument basically was this:

If you aren't a fan of the play, then put a stop to it on the field itself, not in the rule book.

Rendered ineffective, the tush push might just get relegated to the NFL's dust bin alongside the banned trio of horse-collar tackles, hip-drop stops and clothesline trip-ups.

Yet, even as teams come up with ways to stuff the tush push, officials have let the Eagles get away with infractions on the play. The Eagles' offensive linemen routinely appear to get a head-start on the play without getting whistled for a false start. Sometimes, they've lined up offsides. And now, even a fumble was nullified by an early whistle Sunday.

In Philadelphia's 38-20 win over the New York Giants on Sunday, Jalen Hurts lost the ball when he stretched his arms after gaining a first down on a tush push on fourth-and-1 from the Giants' 11-yard line.

Kayvon Thibodeaux ripped the ball out of Hurts' hands and recovered it in a game that was tied at 7-7 at the time. A whistle could be heard on replay about the same time or after the ball came out but officials ruled Hurts’ forward progress had been stopped. The Eagles kept the ball and finished the drive with a touchdown.

“To me, he is pushing forward, he is reaching,” Fox rules analyst Dean Blandino said on the broadcast. “That is an early whistle in my opinion.”

“The refs have a hard job because they don’t know when to stop it,” Thibodeaux said about the tush push.

The latest tush push stir was one of several erroneous whistles in Week 8, including one that took away a defensive touchdown from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But the whistle that negated Hurts' fumble was in the spotlight because so many times this season the Eagles have benefitted from questionable rulings on the play, which is typically run at the goal line.

Giants coach Brian Daboll tried to challenge the ruling on the field but the officiating crew told him he couldn't challenge whether or not it was a fumble because the whistle had blown the play dead. The Giants chose to challenge the spot and they lost that argument, too.

After losing the game and standout rookie running back Cam Skattebo to a devastating ankle injury, Daboll declined to criticize the officials.

“Yeah, I’ll just say our guys upstairs were pretty adamant about challenging the play. I have a lot of trust and faith in them and it didn’t work out," Daboll said. "Not going to get into any particulars though with it.”

The non-fumble was all the talk around the NFL on Monday, but Daboll was still shush on the tush push.

“No, I haven't heard from the league about it,” Daboll said.

Pressed if he had reached out to the league about it, Daboll said, "Any of those penalties or officiating, I’m not going to comment on."

Daboll is doing well to avoid a fine but the tush push is going to remain a hot topic as long as it remains so troublesome, and chances are good it'll get brought up again in the offseason and maybe all the brouhaha surrounding the play this season will force owners to take another look at banning it altogether.

Which might be the only way it can be stopped.

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Behind the Call analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL during the season.

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