The Philadelphia Eagles‘ continued reliance on the Tush Push has once again sparked controversy, this time with Kansas City Chiefs‘ Chris Jones questioning whether officials missed key infractions during their Week 2 clash.
The play, also known as the “Brotherly Shove,” has remained a focal point of debate since it gained popularity in 2022 as a form of a short-yardage quarterback sneak where linemen push the QB from behind to gain crucial inches.
Calls led by the Green Bay Packers pushed for the play to be banned, but a vote from the NFL ultimately sided in favor of the likes of the Eagles and Buffalo Bills, who deploy the move on a regular basis.
Since Philadelphia’s trademark method of scoring was ruled legal, they have since doubled down, using it repeatedly as a key weapon – including during Sunday’s 20-17 victory over Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium.
Replays during the contest appeared to show Landon Dickerson and Tyler Steen moving before center Cam Jurgens snapped the football to Hurts, but despite the visible early shifts, officials did not penalize the Eagles for false starts.
That allowed them to get under the Chiefs’ defensive line and prevent them from generating any counter-momentum against the Phillies’ push, effectively making it impossible to stop and Jones wasn’t too impressed.
“You can’t get all the calls right,” Jones explained in his postgame press conference. “Just because we see it, sometimes the official is 15, 20 feet away and sometimes they can miss those small things.
“We think he jumped multiple times. The official didn’t see it, so it wasn’t called. We just got to go play the next down.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid echoed Jones‘s concerns, acknowledging that Philadelphia may have gained an edge by moving early as a frustrated Kansas City came away from the moment now 19-10 down in the fourth quarter.
The issue was also highlighted on the national broadcast as the seven-time Super Bowl champion, Tom Brady, pointed out how challenging the play is to deal with anyway; especially when the Eagles get away with false starts.
“The ‘Brotherly Shove’ is awfully impossible to stop,” Brady, who lost Super Bowl LII to the Eagles, told FOX Sports. “When you get a false start penalty like that, it’s even harder to stop.
“They missed that one pretty bad.”
Chiefs hit with Tush Push double whammy on Sunday
The pivotal sequence came late in the fourth, when Hurts powered into the end zone on a one-yard score, extending Philadelphia’s lead to 10 points as replays clearly showed linemen shifting prior to the snap.
That potentially gave the Eagles the slight advantage needed to win the battle at the line of scrimmage and ultimately the game, but the Tush Push controversy was not over on the night just yet.
Later on Kansas City’s defenders briefly believed they had stripped the ball on a subsequent tush push attempt. But officials overturned the call on review. Philadelphia used that conversion to run down the remaining time and secure the win.
The Chiefs are now 0-2 for the season and head to the New York Giants looking for their first win of the year in Week 3, whilst the Eagles will take on the Los Angeles Rams on September 21.
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