Jordan Mailata is the most recognisable Australian in the NFL and he is leading from the front for the Philadelphia Eagles in setting standards for the defending Super Bowl champions.<\/p>\n
Plus, what is going on at Baltimore with Daniel Faalele?<\/p>\n
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Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n JORDAN MAILATA (Left tackle, Philadelphia Eagles)<\/p>\n He had been the most vocal defender of the \u2018Tush Push\u2019 and so when the controversial play got Jalen Hurts into the end zone on Monday against the Rams, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback made sure to give Jordan Mailata the ball for the customary spike in celebration.<\/p>\n The signature move, which helped the Eagles all the way to Super Bowl glory, was the talk of the league last season, although back then its detractors were arguing it wasn\u2019t a football play.<\/p>\n Now, attention has instead turned to Philadelphia\u2019s offensive linemen getting away with false starts on the play. <\/p>\n Whatever the criticism of the \u2018Tush Push\u2019 may be, Mailata was having none of it, calling the play a \u201cbeautiful piece of art\u201d and sending a challenge to the rest of the NFL.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of coordination, a lot of organised mass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery other team can do it. Why can\u2019t they convert? You could do it. Let me do this: \u2018You guys can do it.\u2019 This is my official plea to all the teams out there: \u2018You can run the Tush Push just like we can.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As for whichever announcer called it a rugby play, Mailata said they \u201cdeserve jail time\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThat pisses me off because we give so much to this game and to kind of base off a short-yardage play, that is a football play, and say that we won the game off that, but not how our defence played and not how our special teams have played, putting us in those positions,\u201d Mailata said on 94 WIP.<\/p>\n Eagles controversial play prior to TD! | 00:32<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s bull crap. \u2026 I just think it\u2019s rubbish. Absolute rubbish, man. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n As for his play on the field, Mailata earned run-blocking grades of 93.5 and 90.8 from PFF in the first two weeks of the season, leading all offensive linemen on both occasions.<\/p>\n The grades from PFF are not out yet for Monday\u2019s game against the Rams but even if the Eagles escaped with a win, Mailata sent what The Philadelphia Inquirer\u2019s David Murphy described as a \u201cwarning\u201d to his team afterwards in the locker room.<\/p>\n To start with, he warned that performances like the one Philadelphia dished up in the first half \u201cwill\u201d end up costing the Eagles and then went on to add it \u201cwill be 2023 all over again\u201d.<\/p>\n That, of course, was the year the Eagles were bounced out of the wild card round by Tampa Bay with head coach Nick Sirianni\u2019s position even under scrutiny at that point.<\/p>\n \u201cJust looking back, oh my God, the way we were playing up front was not Eagle football,\u201d Mailata told the Inquirer of Monday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n \u201cTurn on that film, you can see it. Running the wrong plays, running run plays when it\u2019s a pass play and pass plays when it\u2019s a run play. It was the worst half of football we could put on film. And you will see it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we need to be real with ourselves. We can\u2019t just be a team that is just finding ways to win. Getting wins in the NFL is tough, but that can\u2019t be part of our DNA. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat can be part of our DNA is the fight that we displayed out here. The way that we had each other\u2019s backs. That can be part of our DNA. But we have to tidy up, because we can\u2019t be a team that just finds ways to win.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a win but Mailata wasn\u2019t getting too ahead of himself. Mitchell Leff\/Getty Images\/AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n DANIEL FAALELE (Right guard, Baltimore Ravens)<\/p>\n The Ravens right guard continues to come under scrutiny online for his level play but again, as was the case before the season kicked off, Baltimore\u2019s coaching staff is still standing behind the Australian in the wake of the criticism. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a big, strong guy. He moves his feet well. He bends. He\u2019s getting better at using his hands,\u201d head coach John Harbaugh said this week when asked what Faalale\u2019s strengths are.<\/p>\n Now, Harbaugh did concede that there have been some rough moments on film for Faalele early in the season but stressed that on a whole the evidence points towards the 25-year-old being a \u201cgood football player\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s been doing a real good job in pass protection for the most part,\u201d Harbaugh said.<\/p>\n \u201cRun blocking has been good but he\u2019s got to be more consistent in both areas. He\u2019s had some bad plays that haven\u2019t looked great but he\u2019s a good football player and he\u2019s getting better. \u201cHe\u2019s young and hopefully he\u2019ll continue to improve. I know one thing, we\u2019re coaching him up really hard every day and we expect him to go out there and play his best football game on Monday night.\u201d<\/p>\n Reid bumps Kelce in INTENSE Stand-off! | 00:33<\/p>\n Faalele did have a nice moment early on against the Lions<\/a>, with a strong block to help set up Derrick Henry for Baltimore\u2019s opening touchdown of the game. <\/p>\n But it went downhill from there for the Ravens offensive line, with the Lions sacking Lamar Jackson seven times \u2014 tied for the most Baltimore has ever allowed in a single game.<\/p>\n In other words, the debate over Faalele\u2019s play and the Ravens\u2019 broader struggles on the offensive line is only to going to continue.<\/p>\n When Jackson was asked about the criticism of Faalele earlier in the week and what people may not understand what he does for him as a blocker out on the field, the Ravens quarterback stressed it isn\u2019t as easy as it looks on the screen but also didn\u2019t exactly go out of his way to praise his teammate either.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an NFL guard,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery position in the NFL is hard to play. It\u2019s easy to just watch and tell somebody you should be doing this. It\u2019s easy to direct someone, but it\u2019s hard to do. I\u2019ll leave it at that.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel Faalele. Rob Carr\/Getty Images\/AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n Faalele recently was in the spotlight for one particular play from the Week 1 loss to the Bills that went viral<\/a>, although that vision was misleading given it was a zone blocking scheme \u2014 which in its most simplistic form involves blocking a gap as opposed to a man. <\/p>\n Often, the most obvious tell for whether a play is zone blocking is to track the movement of the other offensive linemen to see if they move in the same direction at the snap.<\/p>\n On this occasion they did and so while it would be easy to look at the clip and think Faalele was lost, it instead simply looked like no players came through his gap and so he was left looking for work elsewhere only to find none. <\/p>\n