The tush push found its way back into the spotlight this week after officials failed to call false starts on the play during the Eagles’ 20-17 win over the Eagles last Sunday.
The NFL’s training video for officials this week included those plays and instructed officials that the league wants “to make sure that we officiate these plays tight and make sure that every aspect of the offensive team is legal and any movement.” During a Friday press conference, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was asked what, if anything, changes for the team given the emphasis that officials will likely put on the way they call the play in Sunday’s game against the Rams.
“You just address it, and you work on it like you do with every play of playing to the rules of the game,” Sirianni said, via a transcript from the team. “I mean that’s something that we talk about all the time, formationally, snap count-wise, offensively, is what I’m saying. Defense-wise, being onside, all those different things. So, the same way you do all those things. I know there’s a lot of chatter and hype about the play, but we’re coaching it the same way we always coach it, and we know we have to be right, not only on that play, but with all our plays.”
Before the training video came out this week, Sirianni said the Eagles know they have to be “perfect” on tush pushes. That’s only become more true in the last couple of days and the next one they run will have a lot of eyes making sure that they’re more buttoned up than they were a week ago.
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