NFL VP: Officiating tush push remains 'difficult'

NEW YORK -- Officiating the famed tush propulsion play remains a situation for the league office.

Vice president of shot operations Troy Vincent said Tuesday that the play is not a predominant taxable of treatment astatine league office but acknowledged it's "very hard to officiate successful existent time" contempt intensified efforts to spot imaginable mendacious starts successful caller weeks.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles proceed moving their signature play to near-perfection.

"When the defender is successful the neutral portion oregon idiosyncratic other is successful the neutral zone, it's truly hard for that enactment justice to place based connected what he's looking astatine down the enactment of scrimmage," said Vincent from the NFL's autumn gathering astatine the InterContinental New York. "At the extremity of the day, there's a squad that inactive does it well. And we've seen different radical person versions of it. But from an officiating standpoint, we're gonna effort to get amended astatine identifying erstwhile idiosyncratic is successful the neutral portion oregon erstwhile idiosyncratic leaves a small early."

In Week 3, the NFL instructed officials to telephone the arguable play "tight" going guardant aft the Eagles should person been flagged for astatine slightest 1 mendacious commencement successful a Week 2 triumph implicit the Kansas City Chiefs. An officiating grooming portion distributed to each 32 teams showed Philadelphia moving the backmost sneak connected third-and-short precocious successful the eventual 20-17 triumph implicit the Chiefs. After that game, Chiefs caput manager Andy Reid told reporters that Philadelphia "got disconnected a small aboriginal on" aggregate backmost sneaks.

"Anytime we person this concern we're successful abbreviated yardage, we cognize we privation to marque definite that we officiate these plays -- the violative squad has to beryllium cleanable successful each aspect," NFL vice president of officiating grooming and improvement Ramon George said, according to the Washington Post. "We privation to officiate it tight. We privation to beryllium achromatic and achromatic and beryllium arsenic choky arsenic we tin beryllium erstwhile we get into this concern wherever teams are successful the clump presumption and we person to officiate them being onsides, question early.

"Prior to the snap, looks similar we person question by the close guard. We besides person question coming crossed from the antiaircraft side. This is simply a precise hard play to officiate. I get it."

The NFL did penalize a squad for false-starting connected a tush-push-style play -- the Pittsburgh Steelers connected "Thursday Night Football" past week. The erstwhile Thursday, the Eagles ran the play 4 consecutive times connected their mode into the extremity zone.

Eagles caput manager Nick Sirianni has agelong equated the Eagles' masterful moving of the play to having a first-and-9 vantage each caller acceptable of downs, alternatively of the customary first-and-10.

In May, NFL owners voted connected whether to prohibition the pushing of a subordinate from down but did not garner the bulk ballot (at slightest 24 of 32). It has not been determined whether a squad volition trade a caller connection this offseason to trigger different vote.