Eagles Coach Doubles Down On Signature Play

Nick Sirianni still believes in the Brotherly Shove.

Dec 25, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) scores a touchdown on a sneak play against the New York Giants. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Football’s most automatic play turned on the Eagles this past Sunday when the “Tush Push” came up empty against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Philadelphia persevered without its “Brotherly Shove” to capture a fourth consecutive win and improve to 6-2 on the season.

That didn’t stop the Monday morning quarterbacks from taking aim at Nick Sirianni for his “poor decision-making,” taking a breath to toggle from “run the ball” to “take the points” with the benefit of hindsight.

By Monday, Sirianni was doubling down on what has and will continue to be an organizational philosophy.   

“We've been highly, highly productive with that play,” Sirianni said of his team’s QB sneak on steroids. “You make decisions like that, whether it's a fourth down decision or it's a two-point conversion from the one-yard line. I think every time we've had a two-point opportunity from the one, we've taken advantage of that and gone for it.

“That doesn't mean we've always gotten it, but we've gone for it. So you trust your process in that scenario.”

The other aspect to it is trusting the players who’ve made the play as close to automatic as possible.

“You trust all the work that you've done to help you make that decision. You trust your players in that scenario,” the coach explained.

Sirianni also gave credit to Jacksonville, a team that might have been a little more prepared for the Eagles’ uber-aggressive style because the Jags coach is Doug Pederson, the mentor in Philadelphia when the organization went all in when it came to aggression en route to a Super Bowl LII win after the 2017 season.

“I'm not going to get into the things that Jacksonville did to stop that, but they did a very good job,” said Sirianni. “Credit to them to stop a play that's been very successful.”

To the angst of many of his critics, Sirianni isn’t prepared to throw the Tush Push and his aggressiveness with it out with the bathwater.

“You can't overreact to a play that's had as much success as that's had the last three years. So we have a ton of confidence in it,” he said. “Again, you don't have confidence in a play unless you have confidence in the players. That's what it comes down to.”

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