For years, the Philadelphia Eagles seemed to have a massive advantage over the rest of the NFL thanks to their Tush Push. Any time they were in a short-yardage situation, they would line up multiple guys behind Jalen Hurts and follow their big offensive line forward. It always resulted in a first down. Many teams grew so frustrated with the play that they literally tried to introduce legislation to ban it. They failed. Left with no other choice, defensive coaches around the NFL spent countless hours searching for possible weaknesses in the play. The Chicago Bears found it.
Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen first noticed the vulnerability when watching a game between the Eagles and New York Giants a few weeks ago. During a tush push, Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux came in from the outside and went straight for Hurts, stripping him of the ball. It was too late at the time as the play had been blown dead. However, the opportunity was there. Sure enough, when Philadelphia lined up for the tush push against Chicago on Friday, Allen was ready.
The tactic worked flawlessly, halting the push and giving Chicago possession of the ball. It was proof of concept. The rest of the NFL is almost guaranteed to adopt the strategy moving forward. That is probably why multiple Eagles fans said after the game that the Bears just killed the Tush Push for good.
The Chicago Bears don’t take credit for inventing the strategy.
That belongs to Thibodeaux, even if the defensive end didn’t spend hours crafting it. It was a spur-of-the-moment inspiration. Still, the Chicago Bears coaching staff deserves tons of credit for identifying the potential weakness and taking full advantage. It has been a long time since this team had coaches capable of doing something like that. The last known instance was probably in 2018 when Vic Fangio found a way to stop the Rams’ dominant rushing attack, which New England then copied to beat them in the Super Bowl.
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Allen has been a revelation as the Bears’ new coordinator. Despite a bevy of injuries and other setbacks, he’s pieced together a unit that is smart, energetic, and finds ways to make plays when it matters. Philadelphia was another such example.