Many people have called for the NFL to ban the Philadelphia Eagles' controversial "Brotherly Shove" play, but 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa isn't one of them.
Bosa explained Tuesday on KNBR's "Murph and Mac" that he doesn't have any issues with the short-yardage play -- in which Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts sneaks behind center Jason Kelce, with two teammates also pushing the signal-caller from behind -- as long as it doesn't create a significant number of injuries.
"I don't see why it wouldn't be legal unless guys were getting hurt a lot," Bosa said. "I don't know how they get so much push, so I'll definitely be watching tape on it this week when we get into it. I'm impressed with how good they are at it. We got to be good on first and second [down], because you don't want to have to deal with that too much throughout the game.
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"You know, I haven't taken too much time to think about it, to be honest with you. Honestly, I think if people were getting hurt, it would be something I would be against, but if that's not happening, more power to them."
The Eagles' use of the unorthodox version of the QB sneak has been invaluable, as they're nearly perfect when deploying the "Brotherly Shove" in short-yardage situations. Last season, the Eagles converted 37 of 41 "Brotherly Shove" attempts -- an unbelievable 93.5 percent success rate -- and through Week 8 of this season, they'd converted 17 of 21 times, an 81 percent success rate.
So, the 49ers' defense will face the daunting task of slowing one of the NFL's most explosive units Sunday, with the controversial play only adding to the long list of threats that the Eagles' offense will pose. San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan revealed Wednesday that teams can't do much to prepare for the play.
"We're going to do like 10 live reps of it today and see if we have anybody left after it," Shanahan said. "No, you don't practice it."
San Francisco 49ers
Shanahan then elaborated that 49ers coaches will not spend significant time on the "Brotherly Shove" but rather will focus on the coaching points and live with the results.
"You just coach it up, tell them where we want guys and stuff," Shanahan said. "We're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but we're going to talk about it, show it and do as good as we can."