With the Philadelphia Eagles on deck for the Detroit Lions, the chatter about the infamous tush push has already overtaken Detroit. The short-yardage play has become synonymous with the Eagles offense, as its success rate of 91.3% on third or fourth-and-1 from 2022-24 is a huge weapon on critical plays.
So, yeah, the Lions are thinking about the play, and hoping to find a way to stop it.
“We’ve talked about it. Look, we know. We’ve got a plan, we’ve got an idea,” coach Dan Campbell said Wednesday. “You’ve got to execute, and if you don’t, you’ve got to line up and do it again if it comes up again and just find a way to stop them. Hopefully, it’s a critical. If you end up getting three or four of them in a game, maybe it’s that one that you stop that changes the whole game.”
But Campbell and the rest of the Lions coaching staff know that the tush push is not the end-all, be-all. The Eagles have plenty of other weapons, and while short-yardage defense is important, more attention needs to be given to the rest of the Eagles’ offensive threats.
“That’s not the only thing they do. We’ve gotta worry about a lot of other things,” defensive assitant Dave Corrao said. “We can’t be giving up—we’ve talked about here before, we don’t want to set out to stop one and give up 60. But you can’t just give them the one, either.”
Campbell had a similar take earlier in the week during his weekly radio appearance.
“The tush push is the least of my concerns,”he said on 97.1 The Ticket. “I know it’s gonna show up and it’s a good play for them, but we’ve got a lot of other things we’ve got to defend before that.”
The tush push has received plenty of backlash from both people inside the league and fans on the outside. Several want it banned because it’s either boring, dangerous, or poorly officiated. In several recent instances of the tush push, it appears Eagles offensive linemen are jumping early and not getting called for a false start.
The play was nearly banned this offseason during the owners meetings this offseason, but the league couldn’t find the necessary votes for the rule change. The Lions were one of the teams who were in support of keeping the play in the game. On Wednesday, Campbell reiterated why.
“I’m a purist, man. You take something else out of the game, then we’re taking the next thing out of the game, then you’re taking another thing out of the game,” Campbell said. “And pretty soon, we don’t have pads anymore. Pretty soon, you’re only playing 30 minutes. And then pretty soon, it’s—so, I don’t want to take it out of the game. It’s something, a team’s got a niche, they found something, they’re good at it, and it’s for everybody else to stop, and it’s unique, and it’s physical. More than anything, I just don’t want to take anything else out of the game. I just want to leave the game alone.”
Campbell admitted, too, the Lions have thought about implementing a tush push type of play on their own, but they haven’t put the proper investment into a play like that. Plus, he believes there are other things they’re capable of doing other things in those situations—and he’s right. The Lions have faced 18 third or fourth-and-1s this season, and have converted on 15 of them (83.3%). That’s the third-highest rate, only behind the Eagles and Steelers.
As for the Lions’ short-yardage defense, it’s fantastic. They’ve faced 15 third or fourth-and-1 plays this season, and Detroit has held their opponents to just seven conversions (46.7%) on those plays. Meanwhile, the Eagles’ offensive efficiency has dropped a bit in those scenarios, converting on 13-of-15 (86.7%) opportunities.
So it’ll be strength vs. strength on Sunday night.
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