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The Philadelphia Eagles’ famed tush push was in the middle of another controversy during the team’s 38-20 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts had the ball stripped out of his hands by Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux as he extended for a first down. The Giants recovered the ball, and it looked like they came up with a key takeaway, but the referees blew the play dead due to forward progress.
The Eagles were awarded a first down, much to the chagrin of Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who was fuming. Two plays after the fourth-down conversion, the Eagles scored a touchdown to go up 14-7.
Former Eagles star center Jason Kelce said the referees blew the call.
“It’s a fumble, they missed it,” Kelce said during a recent episode of “New Heights.”
Travis Kelce said the referees either had to call his momentum was stopped before the line to gain, and it should have been a turnover on downs, or a fumble. Instead, the referees gave the Eagles a first down.
Jason agreed with his brother and said Hurts’ forward momentum was not stopped. He said that if the tush push is hard to officiate, then it is a reason to ban it.
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“I know there has been a lot of noise around false starts and now this play and I get it. If the tush push truly is hard to officiate, that would certainly be a reason to ban it,” Kelce said.
While he conceded the difficulties that referees have had officiating the play, he defended the play itself.
“Listen, I know everyone wants to get on the tush push, again, I don’t see how this has anything to do with the tush push. Officials miss forward progress calls all the time,” Kelce said.
“I’m not looking to make excuses, I just don’t know how these little things have to do with the pushing of tushes. Like, it’ll still be an issue if the Eagles run quarterback sneak, that’s my one caveat to it.”
“Like if you allow offensive linemen to false start, they are going to do that whether there’s people pushing behind you or not.”
The Eagles’ famed play was nearly banned this offseason. In the spring meetings in May, the owners voted 22-10 to ban it, but fell two votes short of the requisite 24 to abolish the play.
The Eagles improved to 6-2 with their win over the Giants and have a bye week this week.
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