The Minnesota Vikings were fighting for their playoff lives late in the 2023 season. They were in an intense battle with the Cincinnati Bengals and faced a third-and-one at their own 37-yard line.
With the game in the balance, Kevin O’Connell called the Tush Push, a modified quarterback sneak that the Philadelphia Eagles popularized, in which a player pushes the ball carrier forward. Everything was there for it to work, except the pusher. With 181 lb. Brandon Powell driving the pile, Cincinnati stopped Nick Mullens twice, and the Bengals kicked a game-winning field goal that essentially put their playoff hopes on life support.
Powell’s legacy lived on two years later in an Eagan hotel room. The NFL owners were voting on whether to ban the Tush Push play. The Vikings were one of 10 teams that voted to have the play banned. However, the vote lost by the same 22-10 score that the Green Bay Packers lost to the Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
The Vikings were likely disappointed that the vote kept the NFL’s cheat code alive. However, it was ultimately the right call; if you can’t beat them, you should try to stop them.
A lot has been made about the Tush Push and whether it violates the safety codes the NFL brings up when it’s convenient. But this might be the league’s greatest play in its history.
There’s some debate on when the Tush Push originated, but it may have come from the mind of former Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr. When NFL Films mic’d him up for a game in 2018, Barr wondered aloud what would happen if someone pushed the ball carrier forward when executing a quarterback sneak.
While Barr theorized the idea, Nick Sirianni put it into action as the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator and Philadelphia’s head coach. There were a couple of factors that made the play. If Jacoby Brissett doesn’t score on the initial attempt, we may not even be talking about it. The play may never have existed if Sirianni hadn’t run into a quarterback who could squat over 600 lbs. (Jalen Hurts) and a Hall of Fame center (Jason Kelce).
But Sirianni walked into that perfect storm, and the league had no answer. The Eagles have converted over 90% of their short-yardage situations since Sirianni started running the play in 2022, and Hurts leads all quarterbacks during that time frame with 42 rushing touchdowns. Josh Allen is the next closest on that list with 37 rushing touchdowns, but Justin Fields is third with 17.
Needless to say, the Tush Push is effective and helped the Eagles march their way to a Super Bowl victory. But the bigger impact may be how the play has effectively sabotaged the league.
It’s not just that teams can’t stop the Tush Push. It’s that teams unsuccessfully try to replicate it. Teams run quarterback sneaks all the time, but having someone push the ball carrier forward usually ends in a What were they thinking? moment.
The Vikings had one of those moments on that 2023 afternoon in Cincinnati, but they’re definitely not alone. The Packers run a variation of the sneak with tight end Tucker Kraft, but nobody pushes him forward. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell may have also had nightmares of teams lining up in a rugby-style scrum and did his best to defeat the play, pushing the initial vote from March to May and having owners and their family members in the room for the vote.
Through all of this, the Tush Push lives, and Minnesota’s next best thing is to stop it. Teams may feel like they’re getting wronged on third or fourth down, but nothing prevents them from putting the Eagles in long-yardage situations that eliminate the play from being used. There’s also nothing stopping the Vikings from running their own variant after overhauling their interior offensive line this offseason.
Barr told TMZ he didn’t want to remove the Tush Push when they stopped him at the airport last month.
“It’s a slippery slope,” Barr told them. “You ban one play, then what’s next?”
It seems ridiculous when you consider the cheat codes the Vikings have had in the past.
- We’re sorry, Daunte Culpepper, but your cannon of an arm can only throw passes less than 10 yards now.
- Ope, Randy Moss, you can only go over the middle because you’re too good at catching deep balls.
- Jared Allen, you must count to 20 Mississippi before moving toward the quarterback.
- John Randle, no more Ultimate Warrior eye black for you, sir.
It seems more ridiculous the more you think about it. But like any play, the best way to defeat a play is to stop it.
