NFL officials miss blatant penalty on Eagles Tush Push vs. Packers

The Philadelphia Eagles got away with a false start penalty on a tush push play during the Monday Night Football game against the Green Bay Packers. The play happened during the first quarter on third-and-one, and video shows the Eagles’ offensive line moving before the ball is snapped.

This isn’t the first time the Eagles got away with a false start on a tush push this year. In September, the NFL said the Eagles should have been flagged for at least one false start when they used the play against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The #Eagles ran the tush-push on 3rd and 1 and holy cow what a false start (not called).pic.twitter.com/RfwDKTZHDx

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 11, 2025

“Anytime we have this situation, we’re in short yardage, we know we want to make sure that we officiate these plays — the offensive team has to be perfect in every aspect,” NFL vice president of officiating training and development Ramon George said at the time, per ESPN. “We want to officiate it tight. We want to be black and white and be as tight as we can be when we get into this situation where teams are in the bunch position and we have to officiate them being onsides, movement early.

“Prior to the snap, looks like we have movement by the right guard. We also have movement coming across from the defensive side. This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.”

Why NFL officials are having a hard time judging the tush push

The tush push was one of the hot topics during the offseason. The Packers submitted a proposal to ban the tush push, but it did not receive enough votes from the owners to pass.

In October, Troy Vincent, the NFL’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations, discussed the tush push and the challenges officials face with the play. “One of the things that I have learned and what we’ve observed is what has been said by officials the last two years when we’ve discussed the push play,” Troy Vincent said. “Very difficult to officiate real time. What we’re seeing is that the line judge, sometimes on a replay, we see in some cases, say, ‘Hey, would a guard jump or the guard moved?’ …It is really hard for that line judge to identify that based on where he’s at looking down the line of scrimmage.”

The tush push is a big reason the Eagles have had a lot of success the last few years. But if they continue to move before the ball is snapped, the NFL owners will likely have another discussion about the play when the season ends.