After sleepwalking through the first two-and-a-half quarters of Friday’s game, the Eagles’ offense woke up. And the momentum swung fully in Philly’s direction after an interception on Chicago’s next drive.
Down 10-9, the Eagles had the ball at the Bears’ 36. A 15-yard gain from running back Saquon Barkley gave the home team first and 10 from the 21.
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Two plays and nine yards later, the Eagles faced third and one. It was time to trot out the tush push. And the end result was a fumble that the Bears recovered.
“I was hoping that [forward progress] was stopped, but it wasn’t,” quarterback Jalen Hurts told reporters after the 24-15 game. “It was kind of similar to the New York game except that they just didn’t blow the whistle as soon. That’s not to point the finger at anyone else. I mean, I have to hold onto the ball. It definitely presents itself as an issue and it always has. It’s just never gotten us and so today it got us and it’s something that we and I need to tighten up.”
Does the tush push sometimes create issues with ball security?
“It’s been like that for a very long time,” Hurts said.
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He then was asked whether defenses have figured out how to stop the Eagles’ signature play.
“It’s becoming tougher and tougher,” Hurt said. “But ultimately, me holding onto the ball, that’s something I can control.”
The fact that defenses are doing a better job of stopping the play could take some steam out of the seemingly inevitable renewed push to get it out of the game. If the Eagles make an early playoff exit, that could make a new assault on the play even less of a priority.
If, in the end, the effort to get rid of the tush push is abandoned, it will confirm the simple reality that it was never about safety or aesthetics or difficulty of officiating or anything but taking away from the Eagles something that no other team could stop or replicate.
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