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The Tush Push is in Peril Because the Refs Stink at Their Jobs
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This was clearly a fumble and the refs blew it:
Jason Avant made a good point on Eagles Postgame Live. Paraphrasing, he thinks the refs blew the whistle early because they wanted to limit the amount of push the Birds got after the first part of the play, the QB sneak part of it. That makes sense if you agree that the refs are sort of guessing at forward progress and typically losing sight of the ball in the pile.
In this case, they absolutely jumped the gun. Almost like there was a brain fart and they thought the ball was on the goal line. Bad job! And it goes without saying, but that makes it a ref problem, not an Eagles problem. You will hear more ridiculous calls to ban the play because “the refs aren’t officiating it properly,” but the solution there is to simply officiate the play properly. And if it ever got to a point where a play would have to be banned because it’s too hard to officiate, when what does that say about the highest-level football officials in the world?
Something to chew on.
Of course, this situation might not have even taken place if the Eagles had been given a first down on the previous spot of the ball, when Jalen Hurts and Brian Burns met near the marker. That’s a spot that definitely would have gone to someone like Patrick Mahomes.
Regardless, if you want to fix the tush push, start throwing the flag for neutral zone infractions and false starts, and hold the whistles in the scrum. These refs are gonna screw around and get the play banned because of their ineptitude.
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