Giants Hope to Push "Brotherly Shove" to Obscurity

Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale spoke about the challenge of the "Tush Push" play.

Whether you call it the "Tush Push" or "Brotherly Shove," the Philadelphia Eagles, who host the New York Giants on Monday, are enjoying quite a string of success with using this rugby-style type of play on short yardage.

According to The Athletic, the Eagles had a 93.5 percent success rate with the play last season. This year, Philadelphia has converted 72.7 percent of their fourth down attempts (first in the league) ahead of Week 16.

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— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 3, 2023

The push is similar to a quarterback sneak, the main difference being that instead of the quarterback trying to push the pile ahead by himself, he's pushed from behind by multiple players lined up behind him. 

The play has drawn some heavy criticism from some wanting to see it banned, given the safety risk it poses. The play's success also depends on the blockers up front getting low enough to move defenders out of the way so that the push can proceed successfully.

Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has looked at the play as part of his preparing a game plan this week, a play that he knows is likely to come.

"It’s just like a rugby scrum, and if you see a rugby scrum," Martindale said when asked why the Eagles have been able to run the play successfully. "In the sport of rugby, it goes this way; it goes this way, it goes this way, it goes this way, it goes this way, it goes this way, it goes this way, (pointing fingers in different directions).

"Well, if it moves a little bit forward, they will give them the forward progress. It doesn’t matter how you play it. And I think every defensive coordinator, every coach in this league, has looked at different ways to try to stop it, and it’s just a tough play to stop."

While it's usually the quarterback being pushed, teams sometimes hand the ball off to a running back, who then gets the push.

"I mean, you have to protect all angles of it. They have played off of it as well," Martindale said. "As a defense, I think that you have to just look at every down, every first down, it’s not first and 10, it’s first and nine. So, if you just look at it that way, you just have to give it your best shot when they get in those situations."

Seattle safety (and former Giant) Julian Love defended well against the tush push in their Monday night game last week against the Eagles. Love knifed into the backfield and took out the pusher behind Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to thwart the play.

"I don’t know if he already had the first down before then, but I think that was smart by J-Love, Martindale said.

Might he deploy a similar strategy if the Eagles run the play?

"We are going to have to see on Christmas," he said.

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