The Tush Push Conundrum - The NFL Scrum

[frankbmd]

Now that we have a bonafide Tush Pushee going to the Super Bowl, a discussion of the technique and its variations seems warranted.

The technique is effective in getting first downs and touchdowns. For this reason it has been copied and modified by other teams. You don't win without points on the scoreboard after all.

However when Jalen Hurts is touted for having 14 rushing touchdowns as a quarterback this year, I have a problem. How many of those 14 TDs were tush pushes?

In the future will quarterbacks be rated by how many times they are pushed into the end zone? Should tush pushes be considered rushing touchdowns? Philadelphia fans consider them a brilliant and legal manipulation of the rules to score more points and they have. Other teams have copied the Eagles lead and have benefitted.

Personally I tush push my garbage cans to the curb every week. Who should get the credit? The passive can or pushee does absolutely nothing, I, the pusher, want the credit for this act. It's not a game and nobody is keeping score, but who should get the credit on the gridiron, the pusher or the pushee?

Perhaps the card companies will feature tushes on football cards in the future to honor the league leaders in tush pushes.

I'm not mad, but bothered by this conundrum. What say you?

[NiceDocter]

Don’t be surprised to see some rule changes regarding legal offensive formations on 3rd or 4th down to decrease the Tush Push use and effectiveness. Just my opinion……

[packs]

I think the Bills failure to secure points, first downs, and two point conversions using the same method shows there is something to being successful.

[D. Bergin]

I believe it should only be appropriate to Tush Push somebody you are in a consensual relationship with.

This may include wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, play time buddies, beefy offensive linemen, thick legged QB's, and the occasional Running Back or Tight End.

All others should be censured, cancelled, banned, given a good talking to, and even jail time if habitual.

[butchie_t]

This is a play that I cannot get all wee-wee'd up about. It's football, why shouldn't it be a legal play.

Can't stop it?? Get bigger players on the D-line.

JMHO.

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by packs

I think the Bills failure to secure points, first downs, and two point conversions using the same method shows there is something to being successful.

No there is something else to this. It was brought up in the broadcast for yesterday's game that when the Bills do it, they always use the same lineup and process for the play. And the Chiefs defended it properly each time it was used. Now the issue here is that it was Tony Romo who said it, and he also was in the Baltimore game the week before and didn't mention it. I don't really pay attention to interviews but if he knew about it and said he knew the Chiefs knew about it, then it would make sense that no one had figured out how to properly defend it until yesterday?

The story seems to be thinking that there was a tell for the Bills using it. Either that they will use it and/or how exactly they would. And I think if the broadcasters are able to accurately predict when a team would use a particular play, then the team needs to do more to disguise it.

I like how the Ravens use a TE to do the play instead of the quarterback.

[TUM301]

Sooner or later if they allow a team to do everything except maybe carry the QB forward, a defensive player is going to launch himself over the lines and simply blast the QB penalty be damned.

[packs]

Originally Posted by TUM301

Sooner or later if they allow a team to do everything except maybe carry the QB forward, a defensive player is going to launch himself over the lines and simply blast the QB penalty be damned.

That's more or less what happened in the Commanders / Eagles game. Washington knew they were going to run the push and they purposely tried jumping the snap to compensate. The refs then announced that they have the power to issue a score if they didn't line up properly.

The Bills used the same play over and over again in the same game and weren't successful. It can be stopped.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

No there is something else to this. It was brought up in the broadcast for yesterday's game that when the Bills do it, they always use the same lineup and process for the play. And the Chiefs defended it properly each time it was used. Now the issue here is that it was Tony Romo who said it, and he also was in the Baltimore game the week before and didn't mention it. I don't really pay attention to interviews but if he knew about it and said he knew the Chiefs knew about it, then it would make sense that no one had figured out how to properly defend it until yesterday?

The story seems to be thinking that there was a tell for the Bills using it. Either that they will use it and/or how exactly they would. And I think if the broadcasters are able to accurately predict when a team would use a particular play, then the team needs to do more to disguise it.

I like how the Ravens use a TE to do the play instead of the quarterback.

I didn't watch much of the Bills-Chiefs game so didn't hear what promo said about the Bills play, but isn't the formation a pretty obvious tell for any team running this play? It's obvious when the Eagles are doing it, but they are still successful most of the time.

[clydepepper]

Somewhere, 'Refrigerator' Perry is laughing his very ample tush off.

[steve B]

I'm surprised it's allowed.

In 1909 this was a fairly typical play. Teams even had handles on some players pants to help grip as the player was stuffed through the line.

In an October 30 game with Harvard, Cadet Eugene Byrne of Army suffered a broken neck and died the next day. Army cancelled the rest of its season.
During the off season rules were changed to essentially eliminate the play and encourage more passing. In a way those changed helped create the modern game as we know it.

The lower of these two covers probably carried tickets to that October 30 game.

[mortimer brewster]

At one time, wasn't it illegal for a ball carrier to be aided by one or more of his offensive players thus making the tush push illegal?

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by mortimer brewster

At one time, wasn't it illegal for a ball carrier to be aided by one or more of his offensive players thus making the tush push illegal?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helping_the_runner


Made legal in 2005. Hasn't been called as a penalty since 1991...and even then it was because a player "pulled" another player...not pushed them.

I've seen players pushed ahead in scrums as long as I can remember watching football. As long as forward momentum isn't stopped, and the ref hasn't blown the whistle.