Can the Eagles get their signature Tush Push back on track?

Can the Eagles get their signature Tush Push back on track? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles' signature Tush Push used to be an almost-automatic first down for the offense.

It isn't that easy anymore.

It's becoming tougher and tougher," Jalen Hurts admitted after the loss to the Bears.

In their 24-15 loss to the Bears on Black Friday, the Eagles attempted just one quarterback sneak and it resulted in a fumble when the ball was ripped from Hurts' hands. And that was just the latest failure for a play that is clearly no longer automatic for the Eagles' offense.

In fact, their success rate on the play in recent weeks is a bit alarming. Over the last three games, the Eagles have attempted eight Tush Pushes with just two conversions. They have failed four times and had penalties on two others. They were just 1-for-6 with three failure and two penalties against the Lions.

The defense has been doing a good job getting a little bit of movement," said Dallas Goedert, who acts as a pusher on the play. We just have to stick to it, get back to the basics. We've seen different things.

The biggest thing is coming off the edge, knocking us off and getting strip attempts on Jalen and not letting him keep driving. We just need to detail what we're doing and then they're selling out so hard to stop it, some of the complements we have off of it could also work."

Goedert is right. While defenses have tried a multitude of ways to stop the Eagles' version of the QB sneak over the years, it seems like the book might be out a bit on the most successful method. Teams are collapsing the edges, attacking the pushers and then trying to rip the ball from Hurts' hands.

Here's an excellent breakdown of these recent attempts from Shawn Syed of Sumer Sports:

The Philadelphia Eagles have adjusted their Tush Push formation over the last 2 weeks after the Detroit Lions showed a different way to attack the play in Week 11

Took a look at why this change occurred, what defenses may try going forward, and how Chicago forced a turnover pic.twitter.com/QuXxRFQPGY

- Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) December 2, 2025

After his fumble against the Bears, Hurts was asked if that play can lend itself to some issues with ball security and said, It's been like that for a very long time." And in the clip above, you'll see how close the Giants were to getting a fumble in Week 8 had the play not been blown dead.

So how do the Eagles combat this?

That's the fun part of football. Because this is where the chess-like component comes into play. The Eagles have to be able to adapt.

Just like how we do with anything," head coach Nick Sirianni said. They adjust, you adjust, you try to make complements off of it, as many as you can, to keep them honest. All the different things that you do to help. I know it's a unique play that gets a lot of attention and a lot of talk, but you handle it the very same way. You still teach the fundamentals the same way you would in an inside zone and the adjustments that come off of that and the things that the defense is doing and how you can combat that."

After an offseason where the Tush Push's fate was in question, the Eagles this season have attempted the play 27 times. They have converted just 16 and have been called for three false starts. That's a conversion rate of 66.7% without the penalties and just 59.3% with them. They were over 81% last season.

Hurts on Wednesday was asked about how the Eagles can answer the way teams are now defending the play.

There are multiple ways to run the quarterback sneaks," Hurts said. Multiple ways to run the quarterback sneak. There are multiple ways to attach short-yardage defense and short-yardage opportunities when we have that. In my six years of being here, we've done that in multiple ways.

Just being able to have the versatility when needed and knowing that we have a great weapon in what we've been able to do with the quarterback sneak but being able to build and just have all different things available in that. Those are things that are being discussed."

They've already started to do that by changing their formation on the play and some of the roles on the field.

The main goal is to protect the quarterback at all costs," said receiver Darius Cooper, who has operated as a wing on the play. Protect the edges. That's my main goal on the Tush Push."

Cooper said blocking as a wing on the Tush Push is very different" than blocking on the line of scrimmage or out in space.

It's more of a shoulder block," Cooper said. It's not hands-on, get square with somebody. You're not really blocking, you're really protecting that area. Getting in the way, trying to cut off the edge. That's the main thing."

The next step could be to run some different plays off the Tush Push formation to combat the aggressiveness with which teams are attacking the edges.

Sirianni has always gotten excited talking about the plays that protect a play. It could be a way to convert in the short-term but also a way to put a seed of doubt into the opponent's head long-term.

I always think it's cool the sweeps that we run, last year Kenny (Gainwell) had a throw to Smitty (DeVonta Smith)," Goedert said. We have a lot of things off of it, we just haven't gotten a lot of them called the way games have been flowing. Hopefully, we can start rolling again and be able to use them to our advantage."

It seems obvious the reason the Eagles tent to run the play to the left is to run it behind 332-pound Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson.

He has still been approaching the play the same way.

I believe so," Dickerson said. For us, we kind of just head butt the guy in front of us as hard as we can."