The Los Angeles Rams will travel to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3. It figures to be a closely-fought matchup and one of the best games of this weekend’s slate.
Key moments are almost certain to come down to one key play: Philly’s famous “tush push”.
The Eagles ran the tush push several times last week in their win over the Kansas City Chiefs, stirring controversy through the NFL world. Fans and commenters alike took to social media to express discontent with how the league is enforcing rules on the tush push. While it’s a perfectly legal play—despite a large minority of teams voting this offseason to ban it—the Eagles are known to bend the rules by adjusting the alignment of their offensive line and seemingly false starting at times before the ball is snapped.
It’s common during Eagles games to see screengrabs of the center completely covering up the ball from the sky cam. Guards often align in the neutral zone and far from their starting position on every other play. Against the Chiefs, it was clearly evident (and proof shown below) that multiple linemen started moving forward prior to the ball being snapped.
The Rams and Sean McVay voted this summer to ban the tush push despite the effort failing in the aggregate. They now stare down the barrel and must figure out a way to stop the controversial play this week.
Will the NFL enforce rules differently in Week 3?
The NFL began disabling videos on social media platform X for copyright infringement. These posts demonstrated how the Eagles false started and multiple high-profile users saw their posts disabled.
During the second game on Monday Night Football, officials adjusted how the Los Angeles Chargers lined up for their emulation of the Eagles’ play. Could this be a sign of things to come for the Rams’ matchup against Philadelphia this weekend?
The Rams may benefit from a week of controversy. Timing is—of course—everything, and attention is on the Eagles to ensure they line up and execute this play within the confines of the rules.
