{"id":334240,"date":"2023-09-27T02:09:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T02:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334240"},"modified":"2023-09-27T05:01:34","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T05:01:34","slug":"rugby-play-becomes-nfls-most-unstoppable-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=334240","title":{"rendered":"'Rugby play' becomes NFL's most unstoppable tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The most unstoppable play in the NFL<\/a> was on full display under the bright lights when the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a> played Tampa Bay<\/a> on Tuesday AEST.<\/p>\n

When the Philadelphia Eagles need a yard, they often resort to the \u201ctush push. \u201d<\/p>\n

Quarterback Jalen Hurts lines up under centre with two or three players behind him. He takes the snap, the offensive line surges forward and Hurts gets a big push from behind.<\/p>\n

It almost always works. Even when it doesn\u2019t, the Eagles do it again.<\/p>\n

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Hurts was stopped short of the end zone on third down from the 1 in the third quarter of a 25-11 victory over the Buccaneers.<\/p>\n

So Philadelphia went for it on fourth down. Tight end Dallas Goedert, running back D\u2019Andre Swift and wide receiver A.J. Brown provided the push from behind and Hurts crossed the goal line for a touchdown that made it 20-3.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, the Eagles did it successfully for the fourth time against the Buccaneers to extend a drive that chewed up the final 9:22.<\/p>\n

Predictably, many fans and writers expressed their disdain by the Eagles use of it all season, calling for it to be outlawed. The week before, Philadelphia also utilised the play with great success against the Vikings.<\/p>\n

"I am on record last year many times loudly saying it's an abomination," NBC's Peter King wrote.<\/p>\n

"It's an idiotic rule. And the NFL has made, in my opinion, a terrible mistake in not legislating a rugby play out of the NFL."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Philadelphia had tremendous success with the \u201ctush push\u201d last year on the way to reaching the Super Bowl, going 37 for 41. Opponents hate it because they can\u2019t beat it.<\/p>\n

Enough complaints by other coaches led to discussion about potentially banning the play, but the NFL\u2019s competition committee didn\u2019t come up with a rule to be put to vote that would prohibit it.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL_DovKleiman\/status\/1703114630183174315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

The Eagles can do it as often as they wish this season. The play has been legal in the NFL since 2005 when the league removed the language in the rule book that prohibited pushing offensive players. But no team has taken advantage of it quite like the Eagles under coach Nick Sirianni and Hurts.<\/p>\n

It helps having a quarterback who can squat 270kg and a dominant offensive line that features All-Pro centre Jason Kelce, Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson, All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson and Australian Jordan Mailata.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s a play that we\u2019ve had a lot of success with over the last few years and it\u2019s just a physical play,\u201d Goedert said. \u201cJalen does a good job finding the weak spot of the zone. They were trying to jump over the pile today but I was ready for that in the back. If we need a yard, we\u2019re gonna get a yard with our O-line. … Jalen is gonna fight for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the sneak that resulted in a TD, Goedert put his arm around Hurts and tried to lift him in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was yanking him for sure,\u201d Goedert said. \u201cThey say you can\u2019t pull, but I was behind him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers tried a different strategy by having defensive linemen leap over the offensive line to try to stop Hurts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen it with linebackers, but their nose tackle was trying to jump over, too,\u201d Goedert said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where once they get their feet off the ground, it\u2019s better for us, so if they jump, we\u2019re going to get that (forward) movement for sure. It\u2019s a risky play for them. I think they need to get (Steelers Hall of Famer) Troy Polamalu to time it up perfectly. That\u2019s the only shot they got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GLENDALE,<\/p>\n

In a copycat league, other teams have tried it. The Colts, Jaguars and Bears failed their attempts in week one. Nobody matches Philadelphia\u2019s success rate and frequency.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone has Jason Kelce, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens. Not everybody has Jordan Mailata. Not everybody has Lane Johnson on the other side. Not everybody has that type of quarterback,\u201d Sirianni said last week. \u201cWe noticed that last year when people were making maybe some big deals about it. There are a lot that are unsuccessful. … But there is clearly a talent to it that our guys have, because it\u2019s not as \u2014 maybe it\u2019s automatic right now for the Philadelphia Eagles \u2014 but it\u2019s not automatic around the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get that some people are complaining about it, but stop it. Stop the play. It\u2019s not as automatic as people think as we\u2019re seeing across the NFL. Our players make it work, right? Frankly, us as coaches aren\u2019t doing anything. We\u2019re calling the play and the players are going out there and making it work. Now, we did a lot of studies on everything in the offseason to help ourselves be even better at it, but it\u2019s about those guys up front. It\u2019s about Jalen. I think we would be pretty successful without the push, but we\u2019re just pushing them sometimes to give that extra thump.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Eagles even tried to fake a \u201ctush push\u201d in the third quarter against the Buccaneers, perhaps to give defences something else to consider. Hurts started to drop back, but he stumbled and was tackled for a loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s stoppable two plays in a row. I think we had one or two here and there,\u201d Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of weight on both sides. It\u2019s a great play that they got. They crafted it. The offensive line coach does a great job. They have a big athletic quarterback and you got push behind so it\u2019s going to be tough. But we knew that going in."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most unstoppable play in the NFL was on full display under the bright lights when the Philadelphia Eagles played Tampa Bay on Tuesday AEST. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":334242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334240"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334245,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334240\/revisions\/334245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/334242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}