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Tush Pushed – 32 Immediate Takeaways from Eagles 20, Chiefs 17
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Let’s pour one out for the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty, which is dead.
RIP.
The final nail was tush pushed into place by the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, who went out to Arrowhead and dispatched Patrick Mahomes and company for the second time in seven months, this time a 20 to 17 final scoreline. The Chiefs are now 0-2, which is fantastic.
This was a big boy football game and defensive masterclass at the same time. Vic Fangio’s unit allowed 294 yards, a number buoyed by a fugazi deep shot near the end of the 4th quarter. More importantly, the Chiefs were just 4-12 on 3rd down and Mahomes only completed 16 of 29 passes for 187 yards, while Travis “Butterfingers” Kelce dropped one at the goal line that possibly could have won them the game.
Alas, the Eagles prevailed.
As for the Birds’ offense, no, it was not firing on all cylinders. The downfield passing game just isn’t there through two games to begin the 2025 campaign. We’ll get a better look at what’s actually happening when the all-22 film comes out, but the bottom line is that the Birds just stuffed Mahomes and company in their own building, and when you can get a W at Arrowhead, you don’t care what it looks like. Remember, this team was 1-1 at the same point last season.
To the observations! –
1) That was, uh, not an amazing opening drive, but at least A.J. Brown got a target and a catch, so we were able to cross that potential Negadelphia narrative off the list early.
2) Chris Jones and the tush push? He lined up in the neutral zone for a penalty, but at least he didn’t injure his neck by laying down sideways this time around. Later in the game, they tried punching the ball before it was snapped, which also did not work.
3) Eagles 2nd drive: are we sure that wasn’t pass interference on Brown? The ball was thrown a hundred yards in the air because Jalen Hurts banged his arm off Tyler Steen’s helmet, but Brown was clattered into without an opportunity to go up and try to catch it. The announcers didn’t even talk about it. That was a head scratcher. My thought was that the refs thought the ball was tipped, which it was not.
4) Za’Darius Smith – welcome aboard! That TFL on the second Chiefs drive was the key play to force the field goal attempt.
5) Harrison Butker’s first field goal attempt went further right than his political beliefs. Heyo! (don’t worry, we’ll work a lib joke in a little bit later, to be fair and balanced)*
6) Lovely drive to punish the FG miss. Eight plays, 52 yards, 4:08. That little DeVonta Smith screen was the big play to set up a few big runs, and it wasn’t a dreaded bubble screen, it was just a little quick hitter with Jordan Mailata kicking out to seal the DB. That was nicely engineered by Kevin Patullo, six runs and two passes, and good to see Saquon punch it in considering that the Chiefs did a great job limiting him in the Super Bowl.
7) How fucking annoying is it to hear Tom Brady to say “Patrick” 700 times during a game? Good God. Enough with that.
8) Nice to see Vic Fangio dial up the pressure to start the second quarter. Andrew Mukuba on the safety blitz, with Smith coming off the edge at the same time? Beautiful. We may have to develop a nickname for those two if they keep sharing TFLs.
9) 4th drive, 3rd and 15, felt like they gave up with that run call. Not to the level of the “coward’s draw” from the Andy Reid days, but the end result was the same.
10) I would not mind a spinoff NFL product where it’s just Cooper DeJean tackling running backs in the open field.
11) Not much to say about those Mahomes runs in the second quarter. If the Eagles are zoned up, they’ve got eyes in the backfield and can probably close down on him faster. When he saw man coverage he was just taking off and running without even thinking about it. That’s the give and take of trying to make a depleted receiving corps win 1v1 battles.
12) A.J. Brown on the slant – over and over again. Even when he’s falling over, he still catches it:
13) That final play of the first half, before the penalty and field goal attempt, it sure looked like Brown rolled over the DB before touching the ground and was close to moving the sticks. That at least should have been reviewed, unless the ref on the opposite side clearly saw something that we didn’t on TV.
14) Either way, poor clock management to end the half – or was it? It seemed like they were holding there purposely, thinking that play was going to get another look, and then got burned when the clock just kept ticking.
15) Jake Elliott is officially back. Not only is he hitting from 50+ again, but he’s made it look easy two times in two weeks. JAKE THE MAKE!
16) Thought that was a pretty poor play call by the Chiefs on that 4th down attempt to open the second half. You need a yard and you’ve got Mahomes gashing on the ground, so a wide hand off to Kareem Hunt does what exactly? A rightful stuffing by the Birds:
17) The punting in this game was outrageous. Braden Mann and Matt Araiza just hitting bombs back and forth. Incredible.
18) As big as that A.J. Brown sideline shot has been in recent years, we haven’t seen it once this season. It seemed like there was a moment to give IT a look, try to create something explosive in the passing game, especially after those good Saquon carries in the third quarter. Instead, we got penalties, a sack, a give up run, and a punt.
19) Could have used Dallas Goedert for some easy underneath stuff to get Jalen going. The tight ends had one target for 0 yards going into the fourth quarter, and finished with two receptions for 11 yards.
20) Travis Kelce should have been penalized 15 yards for the the obscene big balls gesture. There are children watching! (Not even my take really, that’s according to Troy Vincent, who wants to clean up the game).
21) Tom Brady thought he was so smart coming up with the term “competitive stamina,” which really is a dumb term. Go write a philosophy book.
22) Taylor Swift has ended her engagement to Kelce after this play:
23) At some point you knew that they’d connect on a jump ball with Spags throwing the house at them. It took until the fourth quarter, but what a beautiful turn and spot by DeVonta Smith for a badly-needed explosive.
24) Did you see Sirianni launch the challenge flag? What a fucking arm!
25) The filthy refs tried to deny the tush push touchdown. The first one was clearly in. But it gave us the opportunity to see them shove it down their throats once again. And it doesn’t matter if the two guards jumped early, because the zebras were wrong the first time around.
26) Jalen Hurts anytime touchdown scorer has now hit in 15 of his last 21 games. He has seven rushing TDs in his last four games against the Chefs.
27) Mahomes just… completely missed Thornton on a busted coverage? Holy cow! He later followed up by paying homage to Donovan McNabb with a worm burner.
28) Bullshit call on Jihaad Campbell, quite obviously. Refs trying to keep KC in it.
29) Tell ya what… Quinyon Mitchell almost broke up that TD pass. Hell of a play, even if it didn’t come off. We need the all-22 to figure out what the hell actually happened there. It definitely was not his assignment, he just hauled ass back there and almost pulled off a miracle.
30) “Patrick” had 60 rushing yards at the half. He finished the game with 66.
31) You have to love that the game ended on the tush push. Hilariou!. Of course Andy Reid didn’t have any timeouts.
32) Fortunately, this was an acceptable win:
*sorry I couldn’t think of one, next time, I promise
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com