Tush Push might be a TD thief, but Eagles’ Saquon Barkley sees it as ‘winning football’

Saquon Barkley said he had never spiked a ball before. But after Jalen Hurts crossed the goal line on his second Tush Push to give the Eagles their put-away touchdown Sunday in Cincinnati, Hurts handed Barkley the ball and told him to “spike that [expletive],” according to Barkley.

Barkley obliged.

“My celebrations come more from joy,” Barkley said Wednesday. “I’m not a planned celebrator.”

The Eagles scored twice via their signature Tush Push during the 37-17 win, raising their season total of Brotherly Shove scores to six. On other teams, that might mean Barkley could have six more scores on a stat line this season that already reads five rushing touchdowns.

“Could I take the mindset of could I have more touchdowns? Yeah,” Barkley said. “But at the end of the day the most important things is winning football.”

Plus, Barkley has become quite fond of the play.

“The core of the play is just man-on-man, stop us,” Barkley said. “There’s something about that. Everybody knows it’s coming. Everybody knows what’s going on and you can’t stop it.

“I look at it as it’s more of a statement. When you’re on the 1-yard line and it’s fourth-and-1, you know what’s coming, can you stop it?”

Even without Jason Kelce in the center of it, the Eagles are still proficient at the play that has caused some controversy, with talk of its demise ending with a slight rule change. Even still, the Eagles haven’t been slowed.

Still, there must be a part of Barkley that wants to put the finishing touch on some of the drives, especially when he’s a major part of moving the ball down the field, right?

“I want the touchdown, obviously,” Barkley said. “I’m not going to sit here and be like, ‘I don’t want to score.’”

Barkley, who is second in the NFL in yards per game, said that if he didn’t want the Tush Push in his life, then it would be on him to score. But he’s not going to sacrifice ball security just to cross the goal line a few more times. Especially not when the Eagles have the Tush Push at their disposal.

What Barkley has done recently is watch LaDainian Tomlinson highlights. Barkley loves watching former running backs and tries to learn from them and apply new things to his game. With Tomlinson, Barkley said he loves watching the way he ran in the red zone and found ways to score. He said he might reach out to him to talk about it, too.

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There has been a lot of talk about the Eagles’ identity, and right now that identity seems to be physical football. Barkley’s affinity for the Tush Push comes down to his love for that style of play, and the identity of the Eagles, he said, starts with a physical offensive line that has continued to play well even as it deals with injuries.

“When you have those guys up there, it makes me look a lot better,” Barkley said. “It makes all of us look a lot better.”

The running back position might be dead, Barkley quipped, but “play good defense and run the football … more times than not you’re going to be a successful team,” he said.

That method is working for the Eagles during their three-game winning streak.

The Eagles were without four players on the active roster, all starters, at Wednesday’s practice, their first on-field session ahead of their Sunday afternoon home game vs. Jacksonville.

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Dallas Goedert remained sidelined with his hamstring injury. Jalen Carter was listed as out with a shoulder injury. He missed a day of practice last week with a shoulder injury during the lead-up to the Bengals game. Darius Slay, who left Sunday’s win with a groin injury, also did not practice. And neither did left guard Landon Dickerson, who was listed as out with a knee injury.

Mekhi Becton (concussion) returned to the practice field in a limited capacity. With Dickerson out, the Eagles had Tyler Steen taking snaps at left guard. He started at right guard Sunday with Becton out.

Eagles play in Week 9 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.