How Bears defense hopes to stop Eagles’ Tush Push on Black Friday

LAKE FOREST, ILL – The Philadelphia Eagles execute the Tush Push better than any team in the NFL.

Entering the 2025 NFL season, the Eagles have converted the play 96.6% of the time in fourth-and-1 scenarios since 2022, according to ESPN.

It’s been a consistent part of the Eagles’ offense, and something opposing defenses have to prepare for when facing the reigning Super Bowl Champions.

The tush push, along with many other aspects of the Eagles’ offense, will be at the forefront of defensive coordinator Dennis Allen’s mind as he prepares his unit for the Week 13 matchup in Philadelphia.

“Look, we do have a plan in place, and we feel like it’s a good, solid plan in terms of not only trying to stop that play, but all the plays that come off of it, and that’s what makes it even more difficult to stop.”

The Bears faced two tush push attempts in the team’s 31-28 victory over the Steelers on Sunday at Soldier Field. In the second quarter, the Bears’ defense prevented tight end Connor Heyward from gaining a yard on the fourth-and-1 direct snap, which caused a turnover on downs.

Veteran defensive lineman Grady Jarrett provided his insight on how the unit made that stop.

“The intensity, the get off, pad level and the way we like to try to play it, defend it,” Jarrett said. “High effort play and everybody doing what they needed to do.”

Towards the end of the second quarter, the Steelers attempted a second tush push with Heyward. Instead of trying to push forward, Heyward handed the ball off to running back Kenneth Gainwell, who ran 55 yards to the Bears’ 1-yard line. Pittsburgh scored on the next play.

“I honestly think we did a good job defending it personally,” safety Kevin Byard said. “Especially the first one. I know there’s a lot of commentary about the Tush Push, I think the way DA [Dennis Allen] preaches it is really good. You see a lot of teams defending it by jumping over the pile. That never looks. He kind of looks at it like a rugby play where the guys behind, if you’re in man-to-man and your man is behind a guy on offense is pushing, then you push your guy, you push the defensive line. I think we did a really good job of stopping it.

The other part of it is just defending and understanding what’s the plays off of it. They were able to get to the edges and we were kind of really bunched up in there.”

Byard also acknowledged that the Eagles are the best in the NFL at running the Tush Push, and the stats back up that claim.

According to Radar360, the Eagles have attempted seven total under-center runs with a yard or less to go on fourth down and have converted six of them for first downs (85.7%). It’s not automatic, but it’s tough to stop quarterback Jalen Hurts when the Eagles line up in that formation.

The Bears can use the game film of the first attempt against the Steelers as a potential building block for the Friday matchup. Jarrett also mentioned the defense has to “match force for force and let the results take care of itself.”

That’s one way to approach the Tush Push, but Allen has one that would be even more beneficial for his unit.

“I think the best way to defend it is not get in those situations and trying to create more third and longer, fourth and longer situations.” Allen said. “Keeps them out of those types of situations, but it’s certainly yes, it’s a difficult play to stop.”

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