“Everybody know what’s coming. It don’t f—— matter.” That’s how Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley summed up the ‘tush push’ in their Week 2 clash against the Chiefs.

That signature quarterback sneak is continuing to dominate the field in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams. But boding ill for Matthew Stafford & Co., the Eagles seemed to have dodged a massive penalty, and in the process, scored a touchdown with their signature play. But the announcers who saw what went wrong are calling the officials out on it. Jalen Hurts didn’t just get a first down with the tush push; they also scored a touchdown with it on a 1st-and-goal with 8:07 left in the first quarter.

But as FOX announcers Joe Davis and Greg Olsen broke down the play in slow motion, it was clear that the right guard had a false start before the center snapped the ball. The play was missed by the officials, and as the commentators put it, “It is a difficult play to officiate. And of course, we’re looking at this in super slow motion. In real time, probably didn’t look like much. But it was a false start.”

But it wasn’t the first time this happened.

The officials missed a similar false start in Week 2 when the Eagles’ offense ran the play against the Kansas City Chiefs’ defense. But no flag was thrown at the time as well.

After the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had asked for a decision from the league on the play. “If guys are moving early, then you’ve got to call that. So, they’ll go back and look at that and see what their evaluation is of it. I felt like the guys were moving. That’s why I was griping about it on the sideline there with the officials.” And looking back on the tape, the league did make a decision.

The league proceeded to send a training tape to all 32 franchises and pointed out the missed call.

On the tape, they noted, “We want to make sure that we officiate these plays tight and make sure that every aspect of the offensive team is legal and any movement… That’s not correct, we want to shut it down as a false start.”

But in the heated action of the play, with so many bodies lining up close, the officiating misses continue. It will be interesting to see how the league reacts to it after this Week 3 matchup. For now, the Eagles continue to defend their play, with veterans and coaching staff speaking out in favor of the dominating move.

Jason Kelce and Nick Sirianni on the tush push

Following the Week 2 callout, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce had a strong take on the play. Kelce noted that “the refs are going to be looking for anything to call.” He further added that in those critical scoring drives, the O-Line has the responsibility to “time it up perfectly.”

Defending the miscue, Kelce also noted, “sometimes you are a little bit early, and I’ll tell you this. As an offensive lineman, you’d rather be early than late because if you’re late, it is a very hard play to execute.”

That execution difficulty has followed Philly back to the Lincoln Financial Field for Week 3. And they might be on the receiving end of another league callout. For Eagles HC Nick Sirianni, how he pivots will be the thing to watch.

After the league sent out the training tape, Sirianni was asked if he’s going to make any changes for the offense.

But Sirianni remained firm in his game plan. “You just address it, and you work on it like you do with every play of playing to the rules of the game. I know there’s a lot of chatter and hype about the play. But we’re coaching it the same way we always coach it. And we know we have to be right, not only on that play, but with all our plays.”

But with so much scrutiny around the tush push early on in the 2025 season, this might be the last year Philly gets to dominate the league with their play.

The NFL owners’ meeting last spring fell short of two votes to ban the tush push. Speaking about it, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had noted that 2026 could be the year the tush push gets banned. He backed it up with some historical plays of the Cowboy that the league ended up banning because Dallas got too good at their executions.

Despite the early setback and a missed call, the Rams stormed ahead 26-7 with 13:05 left in the third, looking ready to snap Philly’s streak. But the Eagles did what they always do…WIN! They found a way, again. Final score: 33-26.