We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t know that officials can indeed award a score to a team on offense if the defense continues committing intentional acts intended to stop a score – like, say, consistent penalties, maybe with a middle linebacker trying to jump the pile in a certain QB sneak.
As it turns out, Austin Ekeler and the Commanders DID know that can happen, even if it didn’t necessarily stop Frankie Luvu in the moment of trying to time the Tush Push last Sunday.
“Every Friday, we go over basically like a rules check, and we'll talk about some of the funky rules and things that can kind of come up to the NFL and talk through scenarios,” Ekeler told Grant & Danny Tuesday. “So we've talked through that one before, where they can actually award different types of points for weird kinds of plays that come up, like if someone runs off the sideline and stuff like that. So yes, I’ve heard of it, but obviously, I’ve never seen it because I don’t know if it’s ever happened in, like, decades!”
That said, why not force the issue if you know the result is likely?
“In my opinion, after the second one, I was like, ‘okay, run the dang play, like, we know what's happening,’” he laughed. “It’s basically unstoppable, so like, just get it over with and do something. The defense is trying to do anything they can, like, Luvu’s selling out to try to stop this play and desperate times call for desperate measures, so I don't blame him. He got warned, but I'm here for it, man, because I don't know what else you can do because stuff is basically unstoppable. So, yeah, that was a kind of a wacky moment.”