In the aftermath of the Eagles' 20-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, videos circulated on social media showing Philadelphia linemen getting a head start on several tush-push plays.
The push play, which was the subject of much offseason discussion this year, with a potential ban not garnering enough support from owners. It remains a controversial play early in the 2025 season. Philly used it seven times on Sunday, converting five (one of the conversions accompanied an accepted Chiefs penalty).
The no-calls showed in slow-mo videos created the latest firestorm surrounding the play. Asked about the potential early starts, coach Nick Sirianni didn't deny the Eagles might have jumped, but he downplayed it.
"I think that the one clip I saw of it was slowed down so much that I'm not sure you can see that to the naked eye," he said, via NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I mean, it was slowed down so much, and I get how we can manipulate things and show things like that, but it was slowed down so much, it was like, 'Right!'
"But we have to understand that we have to be perfect on that play. And we'll keep working on being perfect on that play."
The apparent false starts will give opponents more ammo to complain about the play that came two votes shy of being outlawed. If controversy continues to follow the play, the ban could finally get pushed over the finish line -- pun intended -- in the offseason.
Sirianni argued that if you slowed down every single play, you'd be inundated with illegal action.
"You can do that with a lot of plays on football and slow it down," Sirianni said. "The referees have a hard job. They have to make split-second decisions that are happening at this speed. And sometimes you see that with pass interference, too. They slow it down where it's like really slow with the remote. They're like, 'Well, yeah, this one, you can see that it might be on this.' "
The Eagles coach understands it's on his offense to be "perfect" on the play to toe the line.
"We know we have to be perfect in that setting, and we'll work to get even better at the play and better with our timing," he said. "And I have no doubt that we have the right guys to be able to do it, and we will."
The Super Bowl champion Eagles will continue to use the play as a weapon for another year. Then in the spring of 2026, we can do the "ban or don't ban" dance once again.
