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Interesting That No One Complains When Josh Allen Does the Tush Push
By Matt Schultz
Published:
The Bills beat the Lions 41-31 on Thursday night, and Josh Allen got the scoring started with a tush push:
Which had a bunch of people online noticing something we’ve written about before: the Bills sure seem to run the tush push a lot, but suddenly, weirdly, there’s no more backlash about the play. Remember when the tush push was a hot-button topic? Remember all the hate that Jalen Hurts would get for this? Remember when broadcasters would complain mid-game about it not being a football play? Where’d all that go? What happened?
And most importantly, why’s it okay when Josh Allen runs it but not when Jalen does?
Also, most teams voted to ban the tush push. The Bills were one of them. Kinker wrote a few times about Sean McDermott’s hypocritical stance.
They have the nads to run this play five times in two games so far this season. Not that it’s anything new. The Bills have been spamming the tush push almost as much as the Eagles since the play became popular in 2022. The Birds do it more, for sure, but the Bills aren’t as far behind as you’d think, considering they get zero shit for it:
Just seems weird that everyone’s silent when Josh Allen does it. Seems a little off-balance, is all I’m saying. A little unjust.
But maybe no one cares about the tush push like they used to — regardless of who’s running it — because it’s not as automatic as it once was. In 2022, the Eagles had an insane 87.9% conversion rate (29-of-33, 6 TDs) with the play. In 2025, that number dropped to 63.0% (17-of-27, 5 TDs). Maybe since it seems more stoppable now, no one gets as bent out of shape. That could be part of it. Just thinking out loud here.
Also, maybe seeing Jalen Hurts run the tush push has been particularly annoying to people because every time he did it for like three years there, the broadcast showed that video of him squatting 600 pounds. I get that. That video got irritating to me, too. Listening to Cris Collinsworth say “Wow” and “Holy cannoli” over and over again at the same footage week after week. Over time, that’ll rub people the wrong way:
Or maybe people just hate the Eagles in general. That’s probably a big part of it.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com