PHILADELPHIA — Essentially the most dominant offensive play in soccer reached new heights Sunday when the officers grew uninterested in seeing a determined flying linebacker.
The Eagles’ trademark Tush Push was accountable for probably the most ridiculous second of their 55-23 victory within the NFC championship recreation, when referee Shawn Hochuli introduced to the gang that he warned the Commanders he has the authority to award a landing if the protection continued committing deliberate penalties.
Making an attempt to stop the Eagles from extending a 34-23 fourth-quarter lead, linebacker Frankie Luvu twice in a row tried to time the snap and bounce over the offensive line to crash into quarterback Jalen Hurts contained in the 1-yard line.
As a result of he crossed the impartial zone earlier than the snap, Luvu was flagged for encroachment, however the half-the-distance penalty amounted to only some inches, so the reward was well worth the danger till Hochuli stepped in with the warning for a 3rd time.
“That was hilarious. I was laughing the whole time,” proper guard Mekhi Becton stated. “There were a few of their guys in there screaming, ‘C’mon. Let’s run the play.’ Then, when we did run it, we took it in the end zone.”
Luvu didn’t discover it so humorous.
“I don’t know what that was about,” Luvu stated. “I guess they [officials] wanted them to score. I just stopped from there.”
The Eagles scored two of their seven dashing touchdowns through the Tush Push when Hurts runs a quarterback sneak with others shoving him throughout the objective line from behind.
The play ends in a primary down or landing greater than 80 % of the time, which infuriates defenses.
“You think he’d learn,” middle Cam Jurgens stated of Luvu, “but he didn’t.”
The NFL rule e-book warns that “the defense shall not commit successive or repeated fouls to prevent a score” or else a landing may be awarded.
“Simply put, a team can’t commit multiple fouls in an effort to prevent the score,” Hochuli defined to media after the sport.
The Commanders examined the boundaries with a extra conventional offsides when defensive deal with Jonathan Allen dedicated a 3rd straight penalty by making contact with the offensive line.
Hochuli didn’t award a landing, after which Hurts scored when the groups performed up for the fourth try on the snap.
“They had a lot of damn emotion, and they were talking a lot,” Jurgens stated, “and we executed.”
Luvu really was referred to as for an additional offsides contained in the 5-yard line later within the recreation.
Will Shipley adopted with a two-yard landing run as a substitute of the Tush Push.
“When you’re that close, you have to go … take a shot,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn stated. “And so that’s what we do.”
Shooters shoot, proper?
“I was just trying to jump over it,” Luvu stated. “The mindset I came in with was I was going to take my shot. If I make it, I make it. If not, I’ll bounce back.”
Subsequent season, possibly.
