Touch Push didn’t work against Jaguars, but Eagles remain confident

Jason Kelsey once said that the Tush Push, the Eagles’ quarterback sneak option, worked 92 percent of the time (approximately). Then there’s another 8 percent.

The Eagles appeared to be facing a Touch Push against the Jacksonville Jaguars, whose defense knocked down both of their traditional game attempts with two-point conversions on Sunday night. Those poor drives in the second and third quarters ultimately impacted the Eagles’ approach to short-yardage situations later in the game. On fourth-and-1 late in the third quarter Jalen Hurts stepped back to make a pass (which he ultimately threw away) rather than activating his surefire play.

“They did a good job,” coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “Every time it hits you, you think twice and try to go a different route. You know, they caught us. They did a good job with this task. We’re going to have to do a better job as coaches of helping them succeed.”

So what went wrong? At least in part, it seemed like the Jaguars had a solid counterweight to the organized mass of the Eagles. The defensive line seemed to dominate the offensive front, limiting the Eagles’ ability to move forward. The Jaguars defense even formed their own counter wedge as each linebacker moved a defensive tackle to the line of scrimmage at the snap.

But Cam Jurgens hesitated to give the Jaguars defense credit for its ability to stop the game. Instead, the starting center shifted the blame to the offense’s execution.

“We need to make sure that everything is going better, everything is more coordinated and everyone is working together,” Jurgens said Thursday. “I don’t think everything was as coordinated last week. Make sure everyone is doing their job. This is a difficult game. “Everyone is loading up the box and it gets tough, but we have to be able to do it, especially when you’re on the goal line.”

Achieving such coordination can be difficult. Jurgens explained that the Eagles do not practice a full offense-defense game given the high-contact nature of the game. Instead, the offensive line breaks it down to an individual level as each player practices proper positioning and movement.

Plus, there have been some moving parts on the offensive line lately. The Eagles have been missing the 6-foot-8, 365-pound player for the past three weeks. Jordan Mailatawhose push at left tackle often cleared a path through the first-down marker or goal line for Hurts. Fred Johnson took over the starting role at left tackle in his absence, but he was only on the field for the first of the Eagles’ two Tush Push attempts.

The second attempt came immediately after Johnson injured his knee blocking Hurts’ 18-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter. Jack Driscoll came off the bench for the second failed attempt at the two-point conversion, a task that Jurgens called “tough” for anyone with cold feet.

“It’s not a play that’s (incredibly) scheme-oriented,” Jurgens said. “It’s us moving and pushing and I think Jordan Mailata is an incredible footballer who knows how to manage that. Honestly, I do everything. He is a great football player. But especially this play as a whole, he directs it beautifully.”

Although two true Tush Push attempts failed, the Eagles successfully executed a variation of it early in the third quarter on third-and-1. The play looked similar to the one they attempted in the first quarter on fourth-and-1, but Jack Stoll received a false start penalty that pushed the Eagles back 5 yards and forced them to punt.

During a fake sneak in the third quarter, the Eagles lined up in a traditional push-push with DeVonta SmithGrant Calcaterra and Kenneth Gainwell lined up behind Hurts. Smith rolled out, taking the defender with him, while Hurts ran behind a trio of blockers in Calcaterra, Gainwell and Stoll to gain the needed yardage.

Even though the Eagles had a 0% traditional play success rate in their win over the Jaguars, he was still a weapon for most of the season. According to Sports Info Solutions, Hurts has completed 22 quarterback sneaks this season, gaining a first down or scoring on 18 of those attempts, an 82% success rate. He is up to six Tush Push touchdowns.

So despite his struggles last week, the Eagles have no plans to take him out of the game anytime soon.

“I still have a lot of confidence in the guys in this game and everything in general,” Jurgens said. “We’ll be fine. At the end of the day, we want to win the football game and we did that. So we just have to clean things up throughout the game.”

Tune in to Gameday Central on Sunday as Olivia Reiner and E.J. Smith discusses all the key questions surrounding the Eagles’ matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.