Over the last two seasons in the NFL, a well-named short-yardage play has taken the league by storm, thanks in large part to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The “tush push” in short-yardage situations has become a go-to play for teams across the NFL. It’s even started to make its way into the college landscape. It’s old-school football, 11-on-11 in a sort of rugby scrum, and it’s incredibly hard to stop, at least right now.
For Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, who appeared on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football Thursday morning, he knows it’s a hard play, one that puts the defense at a disadvantage, but there are no excuses: find a way to stop it.
“I hate the name, that’s the worst part about being called the ‘tush push.’ I look at this and the only thing wrong with this play, for me, is that the offensive line is usually not set. When this play happened, it’s usually they run to the line of scrimmage, they all get on the center and roll forward. There needs to be a second or two before it’s really snapped because it’s really not enforced,” Heyward said regarding the play, according to video via NFL Network. ” For us, our thing is the d-linemen have to dive right at the legs of the o-linemen and the linebackers have to fill over the top. The d-linemen have to continue to just keep submarining as we call it.
“It’s a hard play to stop, but it’s 11-on-11 football. I’m not going to run away from that, and you gotta find ways to stop it.”
To date, no team has really figured out a way to stop the “tush push.”
Last season on their way to an appearance in the Super Bowl, the Eagles were 37-of-41 on the play in converting first downs. Talk about unstoppable.
Though it seems like a new play, the rules allowing it have been in place for almost 20 years. In 2005, the league removed the language in the rule book that prohibited pushing offensive players. For more than 15 years, no team really took advantage of that removal of the language in the rule book.
Until the Eagles.
Now, it’s a hotly contested topic regarding its legality and if it’s not only fair to defensive players, but safe for all involved.
That discussion got loud this past offseason as the play was sent to the NFL’s Competition Committee to potentially come up with a rule that would then have led to a vote to ban the play. The Competition Committee never came up with a rule to go to vote, allowing the play to continue.
So far in the 2023 season, teams are utilizing the “tush push” all over the league. Heck, the Steelers even utilized the “tush push” on Sunday Night Football against the Las Vegas Raiders, picking up a first down thanks to quarterback Kenny Pickett.
As more and more teams continue to utilize the widely successful play, defenses continue to search for an answer on it.
