Tush Push failed to work vs. the Jaguars, but the Eagles maintain confidence in the play

Jason Kelce once said that the Tush Push — the Eagles’ rendition of the quarterback sneak — worked 92 percent of the time, every time (approximately). Then, there’s the other 8 percent.

The Eagles seemingly ran into a Tush Push buzz saw against the Jacksonville Jaguars, whose defense stuffed both of their traditional attempts of the play on two-point conversions on Sunday evening. Those botched tries in the second and third quarters ultimately influenced the Eagles’ approach to short-yardage situations later in the game. On fourth-and-1 late in the third quarter, Jalen Hurts dropped back to attempt a pass (which he ultimately threw away) instead of dialing up their trusty play.

“They did a good job,” coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “Any time you get stuffed on it, you think twice and try to go a different route. You know, they got us. They did a good job of it. We’re going to have to do a better job as coaches helping them succeed.”

So, what went wrong? In part, at least, it seemed like the Jaguars had a solid counter to the Eagles’ organized mass. The defensive line appeared to out-leverage the offensive front, limiting the Eagles’ ability to generate forward movement. The Jaguars defense even formed a counter-wedge of its own, as linebackers would each push a defensive tackle into the line of scrimmage at the snap.

But Cam Jurgens hesitated to credit the Jaguars defense for its ability to stop the play. Instead, the starting center shifted the blame to the execution by the offense.

“We need to make sure it’s better, it’s more coordinated from everybody, and everybody’s moving together,” Jurgens said Thursday. “I don’t think it was as coordinated this last week. Making sure everybody’s doing their job. It’s a tough play to run. Everybody loads the box and it gets tough, but we’ve got to be able to get it done, especially when you’re on the goal line.”

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Nailing that coordination can be tricky. Jurgens explained that the Eagles don’t practice the full-speed play between the offense and the defense given its high-contact nature. Instead, the offensive line breaks it down on an individual level, as each player practices getting in the right position and executing the movement.

Plus, there have been some moving parts on the offensive line recently. For the last three weeks, the Eagles have lacked the 6-foot-8, 365-pound Jordan Mailata, whose push at left tackle often paved the way across the first-down marker or goal line for Hurts. Fred Johnson has assumed the starting role at left tackle in his absence, but he was only on the field for the first of the Eagles’ two Tush Push attempts.

The second attempt came immediately after Johnson injured his knee while blocking for Hurts on his 18-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Jack Driscoll came off the bench for the second unsuccessful try on the two-point conversion, a task that Jurgens called “tough” for anyone with cold legs.

“It’s not like it’s a play that’s like [incredibly] scheme-oriented,” Jurgens said. “It’s us up there moving and pushing and I think Jordan Mailata’s an incredible football player at running that. Honestly, doing everything. He’s a great football player. But especially that play in general, he’s great at running it.”

While the two true Tush Push attempts failed, the Eagles successfully executed a variation of it early in the third quarter on third-and-1. The play appeared to be similar to one they tried to run in the first quarter on fourth-and-1, but Jack Stoll had incurred a false start penalty, which pushed the Eagles back 5 yards and forced them to punt.

On the third-quarter faux sneak, the Eagles lined up for a traditional Tush Push with DeVonta Smith, Grant Calcaterra, and Kenneth Gainwell positioned in the backfield behind Hurts. Smith motioned outside to the right, taking a defender with him, while Hurts ran left behind a trio of blockers in Calcaterra, Gainwell, and Stoll and picked up the requisite yard.

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Even though the Eagles had a 0% success rate in running the traditional variation of the play in their victory over the Jaguars, it has still been a weapon for the majority of the season. According to Sports Info Solutions, Hurts has run 22 quarterback sneaks this season, picking up a first down or scoring on 18 of those attempts for an 82% success rate. He’s up to six Tush Push touchdowns.

So, despite their struggles executing it last week, the Eagles aren’t pushing it out of the playbook anytime soon.

“I’ve still got so much confidence in the guys in that play and everything in general,” Jurgens said. “We’re going to be fine. At the end of the day, we want to win the football game and we did. So we’ve just got to make sure we clean up things throughout the game.”

Tune into Gameday Central on Sunday as Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith discuss all the key questions surrounding the Eagles’ matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.