The Lions’ defense stopped the Eagles’ tush push twice on Sunday, and on two other occasions the Eagles lined up to tush push but got called for false start penalties, as Detroit showed that Philadelphia’s Brotherly Shove isn’t as unstoppable as it sometimes seems. Lions defensive lineman Alim McNeill says there was nothing fancy about Detroit’s defensive success.
“There’s no scheme to defending the tush push, just more of a want-to. Just the willing and want to get down there and stop the play. There’s no scheme to it, we just wanted to stop it. we didn’t want them to run the tush push four times and get it all four times,” McNeill said.
McNeill said any time the Eagles were in a tush push situation, the Lions brought out their “big base defense” of himself, DJ Reader, Tyleik Williams and Roy Lopez. But he said it’s not just about the big bodies on the line.
“You can line up in that but you have to stop it, you’ve got to have that want-to.It sounds good to talk about it but to actually do it in the game is a lot different,” McNeill said. “It’s a hard play to defend. It’s just a mentality thing. Like anything else on the field, you’ve got to have the mentality before anything.”
All of the Eagles’ opponents will study what the Lions did, but if McNeill is to be believed, there’s not much about stopping the tush push that can be studied. It’s just about finding the players who will get low and refuse to be moved.
