‘You can’t get all the calls right’ — Chiefs DT Chris Jones echoes frustrations over Eagles’ controversial ‘Tush Push’ play and it could cost him
Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones was asked about the Philadelphia Eagles’ controversial play.
There are a lot of things that went wrong in the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 2 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that the team can control. However, the one thing they can’t control is going to be the most-discussed topic following this game. It has already garnered a response from DT Chris Jones that might see him fined by the league for speaking his truth.
Once again, the Eagles’ “Tush Push” or “Brotherly Shove” play is at the center of NFL controversy. The NFL’s competition committee nearly banned the play during the offseason, and it was rumored that Roger Goodell himself wanted the play banned. They didn’t have the votes to get that done, but the latest outrage might be the final straw. During the Week 2 game between the Eagles and Chiefs, it appeared as if both guards jumped the snap.
Chiefs players tried to alert officials to this multiple times, but to no avail. At one point, FOX Sports’ Tom Brady called out the guards for jumping offside on the play. Later, rules analyst Dean Blandino really let the league have it, describing exactly what’s wrong with the play.
“I am done with the tush push guys,” Blandino said. “It’s a hard play to officiate, like we’ve been talking about. So, they either ruled progress or that Hurts was down. Really hard to see what’s happening with the football. We’re inside two (minutes), so replay has looked at this and they’ve determined there was no fumble.”
Chiefs DT Chris Jones echoes the frustrations of Dean Blandino and others
A reporter asked Chiefs DT Chris Jones something to the effect of: “It looked like you guys thought that the Eagles guards were maybe moving on one or more of those plays. What’s that conversation like down there?” Jones echoed Blandino in implying that this is a tough one for the officials to get right.
“You know, sometimes, you can’t get all the calls right, and just because we see it, sometimes the official is 15 to 20 feet away,” Jones said. “Sometimes you can miss those small things, and we think he jumped multiple times. So an official didn’t see it, so it wasn’t called, and we just gotta go play the next down.”
Essentially, the Chiefs’ players were in a position to see the false start. However, the line judge who officiates the play is 15-20 feet away from the ball being snapped, making it much harder to see the early movement on the play. It’s easy to see it in the super-slow-motion video, but it’s not quite as easy to see the early movement in live action.
Asked whether it’s something they see on tape that they can prepare for, Jones again reiterated that the officials need to be the ones to see the false start happen.
“It happens,” Jones said. “People jump all the time. It’s just, you know, if the officials see it, they’ll call it. I don’t think they’ve seen it, those few plays, and we didn’t get a call.”
The comments from Jones might cost him some money for “criticizing” officiating, but he’s not exactly wrong about any of this. The onus is on the officials to see the early movement and make the call. In this writer’s opinion, if the play in and of itself is too challenging to officiate properly, perhaps the NFL needs to decide to take it out of the game once and for all.
Kansas City Chiefs News
Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid shares injury updates on two key defenders after Week 2 loss to Philadelphia Eagles
Chiefs HC Andy Reid had injury updates on Mike Danna and Kristian Fulton after the Week 2 loss to the Eagles.
