The Philadelphia Eagles found out Sunday afternoon what the rest of the NFL and most of college football has experienced this season, the "Tush Push" is not an infallible play.
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For the first time this season, the Eagles lost a fumble on the play, in a game Philadelphia had been trailing 17-10 at the time to the Washington Commanders.
With 10:16 remaining in the third quarter, and the Eagles facing 1st-and-goal from the one-yard line, quarterback Jalen Hurts attempted the tush push play that has become a stable in Philadelphia's offense, but fumbled the football just short of the goal-line, that was recovered by the Commanders.
BREAKING: Tush Push has failed for the Eagles 😳
Fumble at the goal line.
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/ihzwxYKSok
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 29, 2023
According to The Athletic, the Eagles entered Sunday with a league-high 93.3 percent success rate while running the tush-push, but the first attempt against Washington wound up yielding disastrous results. Last season, when the Eagles ran the play during the course of an entire season, Philadelphia boasted a 93.5 success rate.
Following the Eagles' success with the play, so far this season, several teams added tush-push to their playbook, but haven't come close to Philadelphia's success rate. On one such play, the New York Giants didn't just come up short for the first down, against the Seattle Seahawks, but two players suffered significant injuries and were knocked from the contest.
Additionally, several top college football programs have struggled mightily to succeed running the play.
Prior to Sunday, it had appeared that the combination of center Jason Kelce's All-Pro prowess and ability to get low in order to create leverage, combined with Hurts' ability to squat 600 pounds were driving forces behind the Eagles' success with the play that hadn't been replicated by other teams.
But, now, perhaps even Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni will have some second thoughts about calling the play, following Hurts' fumble. Time will tell if the play remains the darling of playcallers across the NFL.
