Everyone saw the Philadelphia Eagles jump offsides on the tush push against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2. And then … everyone saw it happen again!
Thanks to replay — slowed way down — everyone could plainly see that the officials missed the penalty. And then once slowed down, there was an even bigger question. On the final tush push with 90 seconds left in the game, did Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill rip the football away from Jalen Hurts before was Hurts down (or was his progress halted)?
There was essentially no way of knowing. By that point, FOX Sports rules analyst Dean Blandino let his long-held frustrations loose.
"I am done with the tush push guys. It's a hard play to officiate," Blandino said on the FOX broadcast.
So, after 22 of the 32 teams voted to ban the play this past offseason, falling just two votes shy of ratification, what are the odds of the tush push surviving next year's owners meetings?
"It's 50-50," Blandino told me. "How does the rest of the season play out? … If something does happen in a playoff game, it's a short memory, right? This is Week 2. If nothing else happens the rest of the year, is this going to be top of mind?"
Blandino has discussed this play at length, and he will tell you flat out: "I don't love the play." His concerns, which are not new, are three-fold: 1) player safety, 2) competitive fairness and 3) officiating consistency. And to be clear, these are not his concerns alone. Owners, coaches and general managers have these same concerns around the league. Of course, none of them resides in Philly.
But it was that third concern — officiating consistency — that came into sharp focus on Sunday. The first question is whether the officiating struggles might spell the end of the
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