In Week 12, the Los Angeles Rams have to take on one of the most unstoppable plays in all of football: the Tush Push.
That's right, not only do the Philadelphia Eagles have the best rushing attack in the NFL, the second-best passing defense, and elite performers across their entire roster, but they also have a short-yardage play that isn't as unstoppable as it once was but remains a serious weapon on fourth downs and around the endzone.
How can a Rams defense that has struggled against the run at times in 2024 plan to shut down a play that seemingly works more than three-quarters of the time? Well, Sean McVay was asked that very question and broke down what he knows about the play, including how Jeff Stoutland has mastered the play.
“Where do you want me to start? I think the biggest thing is just the momentum, the techniques, and the fundamentals. Everybody tries to run it, but they do it at a little bit different clip,” McVay told reporters.
“You hear people talk about [Eagles Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach] Jeff Stoutland, is a guy who is one of the great coaches in this league. There’s an understanding of leverage angles, get off, a rapport that's been established, and they've been doing it for a long time. Obviously, [Eagles QB] Jalen [Hurts] has a great feel for being able to kind of ride that wave, if you will. There are a lot of challenges.”
Now normally, that would be the end of it, but for some reason, the Tush Push has captured so much attention that it's become a proper noun. Fortunately, McVay was willing to take another question on the topic and broke down defending the play into a little more granular detail.
Sean McVay preaches Rams gap integrity versus the Tush Push
Continuing his comments on the Tush Push, McVay broke down defending the play into more granular detail, which includes maintaining gap integrity against a well-oiled machine.
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“Yeah, you need to be able to cover those gaps and that situation arises in short yardage and the tight red area. Hopefully, you're efficient enough that you don't get to too many of those situations where it's a big advantage for them, and they've created that advantage,” McVay told reporters.
“There are a lot of different things. I don't want to get too far into it. The hard thing too is once you get at this point of the year to simulate what that would actually be like and some of those rugby scrum-type of settings, that's difficult. It's why they're one of one. A lot of people try to emulate that, but they're the ones that have done it at such a high level and it's been really difficult for people to stop.”
Do some fans and teams alike overplay the importance of the Tush Push? Maybe so, but do you know what? When the Eagles go down at the two and need a little push to get a new set of downs or over the goal line, that play is borderline automatically called and automatically executed, which is probably why teams care so much about it in the week preceding an Eagles game.
