The Philadelphia Eagles are making headlines this season on every front of the game. Right from their unbeaten streak (3-0) to the team’s epic rally against the Los Angeles Rams after trailing at 7-26 and eventually winning the game, 33-26. The Eagles are firing on all cylinders, but apart from their amazing streak and impressive stats, there is one more aspect of the Eagles that is making headlines. 

This time, the Eagles are in the spotlight not because of a player, management, or contractual issues, but because of a style of game: “tush push”. When the Eagles weren’t penalized after a false start against the Kansas City Chiefs, the NFL warned the officials to watch the illegal formations. After the warning, the topic of the tush push ban again surfaced, but it looks like Nick Sirianni isn’t ready to give up and has his own way of dealing with it. 

In today’s game between the Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Eagles again harnessed the power of the tush push with a new variation. It was 3rd-and-1 when the Eagles ran a fake tush push, and Saquon Barkley covered 6 yards unimpeded for an easy touchdown. The scoring drive began through Jihaad Campbell‘s forced fumble on Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving. 

This new variation of tush-push left the Buccaneers completely tricked and led to an easy TD for the Eagles. Sirianni had said, “We understand that we have to be perfect on that play, and we’ll keep working on being perfect on that play. No doubt that we have the right guys to be able to do it,” while talking about adjustments to tush push. 

Although the tush-push looks impressive, this is not the first time the Eagles have faked it. They did a similar kind of fake play against D’Andre Swift in 2023. Eagles don’t use the fake trick very often, but after the easy TD through this trick in today’s match, we might see the Eagles bringing this kind of play more often. The best part about it, they continue to capitalize on it in every match. 

The NFL might have warned about the tush push, but the Eagles keep getting away with it. However, they have continued to make the most of it. After showcasing the wonders of the tush-push against the Chiefs, they brought it back in Week 3 against the Rams. They used the play when the team was facing a fourth-and-1 at the 3-yard line. The Eagles falsely started on the play, but again, it wasn’t called. 

Eagles have been taking advantage of the unique play that they perfected and popularized. And now, it looks like Nick Sirianni’s appeal for head coaches to vote in favor of tush-push has worked in his favor. 

The league’s stand on tush-push before the season kicked off  echoes that of Nick Sirianni

Before the start of the NFL 2025 season, the fate of Tush Push was in the hands of the owners. Its future was going to be decided at the NFL’s annual league meeting in Palm Beach, Florida. Before the meeting, he appealed to Jonathan Gannon, Shane Steichen, and Kellen Moore to vote in favor of the play. The league needed 24 out of 32 votes to either cancel or approve Tush Push, but the decision was delayed. 

The issue was again raised in the May 2025 spring meetings by the Green Bay Packers. The team proposed a rule change in tush push that would have banned the play. However, it received only 22 votes in favor of banning the play, missing the ban label by two votes. 

Ever since 2022, the Eagles have converted the tush push 96.6% of the time on fourth and 1, and it appears they will continue to maintain this record in the upcoming season as well. Now, after today’s play, it’s clear that Nick Sirianni has found new variations to the play he once popularized, and till there are no bans on this play, opponents need to find a good way to break into it with the Eagles’ tush push fortress.