The NFL wants officials to keep a close eye on pre-snap movement during tush push plays after admitting the Philadelphia Eagles should have been flagged for a false start in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The league instructed officials in a training tape distributed Wednesday to call the tush push “tight” going forward while acknowledging the difficulty in evaluating the famous play.
“Any time we have this situation, we’re in short yardage. We know we want to make sure that we officiate these plays,” NFL vice president of officiating training and development Ramon George said in the video, according to ESPN’s Tim McManus. “The offensive team has to be perfect in every aspect. We want to officiate it tight. We want to be black and white and be as tight as we can be when we get into this situation where teams are in the bunch position and we have to officiate them being onsides, movement early.”
George went on to highlight a false start committed by the Eagles on Sunday.
“Prior to the snap, looks like we have movement by the right guard,” he said. “We also have movement coming across from the defensive side. This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.”
The Chiefs believed the Eagles’ offensive line jumped more than once during the 20-17 loss, with defensive tackle Chris Jones saying postgame, “We think he jumped multiple times,” according to Noah Sacco of KAKE News.
Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata later remarked that it was “bullcrap” to think Philadelphia won because of the tush push.
The tush push was nearly outlawed over the offseason, but the proposed change fell two votes short of the 24 required.
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