In Philadelphia’s charge through the 2022 season, they developed a trademark short yardage tactic with an abnormally high success rate. A quarterback sneak that more resembles rugby’s rolling maul than football’s typical dive paid enormous dividends for the NFC champions.
It gave the Eagles a decisive advantage on short-yardage plays, extending drives and creating points. It’s a strategy so simple and so obvious Dallas would be foolish to not consider it themselves in the future.
If the Cowboys can take it and make it their own, they could improve their fourth-down aggressiveness and squeeze extra juice from their already impressive offense.
The basics: The play is simple. The offense snaps the ball to the quarterback under center (in this case, Jalen Hurts), the offensive line pushes forward while Hurts ducks low and picks his spot behind blockers. With the ball firmly secured, he presses forward.
Typical sneak, right?
Then things get different. Backfield players, typically running backs and/or tight ends, latch onto Hurts from behind, and push him forward. That’s the rolling maul portion of events. Hurts is in the middle with offensive linemen pushing in front of him and skill players pushing from behind him.
In terms of pure horsepower, it far exceeds anything the opposing defensive line can produce, and by the time additional back-seven players join in the defensive effort, the required yardage has been gained and the play has achieved success.