Eagles' Nick Sirianni Opens Up About Tush Push False Start Allegations vs. Chiefs

NFL fans were up in arms on Sunday afternoon when it appeared the Eagles were going unpunished for repeated false starts during their signature tush push play—a bad look considering the high profile of their game against the Chiefs and the maneuver's near-ban this offseason.

On Monday, coach Nick Sirianni commented on and downplayed the could-be missed calls, but made clear that the team will continue to work on the timing and execution of the play moving forward.

“I think that the one clip I saw of it was slowed down so much that I’m not sure you can see that to the naked [eye]," the coach said of the purported false starts, asked if he thought the allegations were valid in hindsight. "I mean, it was slowed down so much, and I get how we can manipulate things and show things like that, but it was slowed down so much."

That said, he continued, "we understand that we have to be perfect on that play and we’ll keep working on being perfect on that play."

The coach added that, in his estimation, refs miss things all the time if you slow the tape down enough.

"There’s things they do, too, on defense that sometimes you can’t see to the naked eye all the time, or the refs can’t see it, also in that time, to the naked eye," he said. "You could do that with a lot of plays in football and slow it down."

That is true, but the difference with the tush push is the controversy around it. Even if you support the play, you can't deny that one of the best ways to keep it around is to run it cleanly and perfectly every time, lest you give the opposition more ammo.

But again, the Birds know this. "We know we have to be perfect in that setting and we'll work to get even better at the play and better with our timing," Sirianni added. "I have no doubt we have the right guys to be able to do it and we will."

Watch his full comments below, starting at 24:34: