Philadelphia Eagles Angering Anti-Brotherly Shove Crowd After Win vs. Miami Dolphins

The Philadelphia Eagles used the Brotherly Shove three times on fourth down, scoring a touchdown once and picking up critical first downs on game-sealing drive

PHILADELPHIA – Cue the whiners and complainers: Waah, we can’t stop the Brotherly Shove, boo-hoo guys will get hurt, it’s not a football play. On and on go the excuses to ban it.

The whiners and complainers want the NFL to bail them out and ban it - “we can’t stop it, so let’s hope the league saves us from it.” That’s embarrassing, quite frankly.

What comes to mind is Tom Hanks’ line in the movie, ‘A League of Their Own:’ There’s no crying in baseball. Except you can substitute "football" for "baseball."

The criers began wailing again when the Philadelphia Eagles took the play they are so successful with and stuck it in the face of a nationally-televised audience in Sunday night’s 31-17 win over the Miami Dolphins. 

They used it three times on fourth down, one was a Jalen Hurts touchdown. The other two came on the game-sealing touchdown drive that picked up first downs on the Eagles’ own side of the field.

“It’s first and nine every down,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “Every first down, it’s first and nine. Knowing that if you get to fourth and one, shoot, a lot of faith in that play.

“So, it was awesome. Again, Jason Kelce starts it off. Jalen Hurts was right there. Because you’ve seen it across the league that people can’t do it like we can do it. They can’t do it like we can do it.”

The Minnesota Vikings tried it on back-to-back plays and never had a chance. On the second one, center Garett Bradbury didn’t even snap the ball as the whole offensive line moved. It was hilarious.

Sirianni is right about his team needing to go only nine yards instead of 10 on first downs, especially when it comes down to needing a yard on fourth downs.

Lane Johnson said he had already parked his butt on the bench.

“Then I heard somebody yell, ‘We’re going back out there,’” Johnson said.

The Philadelphia Eagles used the Brotherly Shove three times on fourth downs, getting a touchdown and two first downs on a critical fourth-quarter drive / USA Today

It was so unlike Sirianni to punt the ball back when faced with a 4th and 1. even with the ball at their own 26-yard line and the Eagles protecting a touchdown lead with 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter during Sunday night’s game against the Miami Dolphins.

Sirianni looked like was going to send the punt team out. Then he called timeout.

“I didn’t know what the down and distance was exactly,” said the head coach. “I think initially I thought it was a little bit further back than it was, and then I got a good look of where the spot was. I didn’t love that I had to call a timeout there.

“I had to get a second look at where the spot was. I thought initially it was two, but it was more like a yard. I thought to myself, well, I would be crazy if I don’t go for it on fourth-and-one with the type of guys we have.”

Center Jason Kelce put it another way.

“He felt compelled he was being stupid and sent us back out there," said Kelce, laughing. "It was pretty much what he expressed to us, ‘What am I doing? Get back out there we’re doing this.”

The Eagles used their vaunted Brotherly Shove to get the first down.

Another fourth-and-one followed, this one from Philly’s 37. So did another Brotherly Shove for a first down. The two plays were critical in keeping a drive alive that ended up consuming 6:35, using 13 plays, and 83 yards that ended with a 3-yard touchdown from Kenny Gainwell that put the finishing touches on a 31-17 win over the Dolphins.

The Eagles were four-for-four on the night on fourth down.

“For him to have the trust in us and the moments in that situation on all of those fourth downs (to) go out there and make a play and execute, that’s all that matters,” said Hurts.

Now, the whiners and complainers aren’t happy about a play that requires execution, like any other play. Because they can’t stop it.

Go figure.