Why the Philadelphia Eagles' 'tush
push' play is causing such a stir
[October 29, 2025]
By ARNIE STAPLETON
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.
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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts leaves after an NFL
football game against the New York Giants on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025,
in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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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