Robert Saleh wants Jalen Hurts to at least pay the price.
Saleh admitted there’s no blueprint or trend to follow in order to stop the Eagles’ vaunted tush push play, but the Jets’ head coach still has an important challenge for his defense ahead of their Week 6 clash.
“If the quarterback carries the ball we’ve gotta give him 11 kisses, figure out a way to do that,” Saleh said while smiling before practice on Wednesday.
“… They play violent, they play aggressive, they’ve got a quarterback who is super strong in terms of creating leverage. I don’t think he feels pain when he gets hit, even though we’re gonna try – legally.”
The 11 kisses, of course, mean 11 hits from Jets defenders.
The tush push has grown controversial across the NFL, a seemingly routine quarterback sneak where other offensive players start behind the quarterback and push them forward past the first-down marker or into the end zone.
The Eagles spearheaded the play’s increasing popularity and have emerged as by far the most successful team running it.
They’ve run it 43 times this year, converting for a first down or touchdown 38 times with an 88 percent success rate.
Philadelphia ran the play six times in their Week 5 win over the Rams and were successful four times, and the two failed plays were late in the game when they were running the clock down.
It’s sparked calls for the play to be banned, with some pointing to possible safety issues arising with players being pushed from behind into tacklers.
Saleh believes it’s just a “scrum,” and doesn’t share that sentiment, echoing one of his favorite sayings.
“If you don’t have any haters, you ain’t poppin,” Saleh said, repeating the phrase he used in the preseason amid criticism of the Jets. “A lot of people are hating on their play because it works, but nobody else can seem to make it work to their efficiency. So bravo to them. …
“A lot of respect for it, because there’s other teams trying to do it, too. The reality is, they’re really good at it, it feels like the quarterback is wearing a bulletproof vest when you look at him, he’s got all that padding on. We’re gonna try to do our best to try and stop it.”
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