Green Bay plays Philly on “Monday Night Football,” and the signature play will be once again a big topic of conversation.
During the offseason, the Green Bay Packers (probably following a request from the NFL) tried to ban the tush push. The movement was unsuccessful, at least for 2025, and the team will have to face a reality on “Monday Night Football” where the Philadelphia Eagles can still run their signature play.
While the decision to try to ban the play came from the front office, head coach Matt LaFleur had to talk about the topic multiple times throughout the year. And now that the Packers are getting ready to play Philly, the discussion would inevitably return.
How the Packers plan to stop the tush push
The best way to stop the play is, well, avoiding scenarios where the Eagles can call it. It’s a play designed to convert short downs, so LaFleur intends for the defense to be effective on early downs and put the opposing offense in more uncomfortable situations on third down.
“The best way to stop it is to not allow it to happen,” LaFleur said on Thursday. “You can’t allow them in those short-yardage situations, because you know exactly what they’re going to do, and they’ve been pretty successful at it.”
Obviously, Matt LaFleur knows that eventually those situations may emerge. But he didn’t want to share details about the Packers’ actual plan.
“We’ll always have a plan,” LaFleur added. “There are fundamentals and techniques that I’d rather not get into. We can have a conversation after the game.”
The Packers are careful with its usage
While the Packers did call some tush push plays two years ago, it hasn’t happened much since — tight end Tucker Kraft, who’s now out for the season, also ran some version of it and sneaks over the past few years. It’s not anything against the play, just a desire to avoid putting the quarterback under risk.
“We were successful on four of the five, and I remember the ones we weren’t,” LaFleur said. “It was just one of those decisions. I think every team’s built a little differently. For me, it’s always about whether you want your quarterback subject to some of those hits he could potentially face in those situations.”
While the offseason rule discussion didn’t go like the Packers wanted, LaFleur is focused on what will happen on Monday.
“I’m not going to get into it,” he mentioned. “It is what it is. The NFL made a decision, and we have to find a way to try to stop the play, and it’s a tough play to stop.”
Whenever the Packers and Eagles play, there will be a discourse about the tush push. For Green Bay, though, the best scenario is if the call doesn’t happen whatsoever.
