One play remaining, one yard from the end zone, one touchdown away from stealing a season-resuscitating victory.

And the Giants — who have an 85.7 percent success rate using the “Tush Push” with Quarterback Daniel Jones — put the ball in the air. Tyrod Taylor, filling in for an injured Jones, threw a final-play incompletion and the Giants lost, 14-9, to the Bills.

There is little question what the Eagles — creators of the most controversial play in football — would have done in that situation: Aligned quarterback Jalen Hurts under center with a tight end and a running back tight on his wings, and snapped the ball as Hurts churned his legs with shoves from behind to gain additional force.

“The difference,” one Offensive lineman whose team recently adopted a version of the play told Post Sports+, “is the Eagles have the best offensive line in the league.”

It seems everyone has an opinion on the “Tush Push” and whether it should be outlawed as a dangerous play — the NFL’s competition committee reviewed it for safety reasons during the offseason — or whether all the grumbling is because it is just so difficult to stop.

“Will we talk about it again? I’m sure of it, because it’s being talked about by all of you,” Falcons CEO Rich McKay, chairman of the competition committee, said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings. “So it will be talked about by us. But I’m not in the predicting business of what that means.”

The Eagles are 16-for-17 this season in gaining at least one yard — an almost identical success rate to when it was unveiled last season — when calling the “Tush Push,” which they have run as many as six times in a game (against the Rams) from as far back as three yards shy of a first down.

While the Jets still prefer to line up in shotgun on third-and-1 situations, the Giants aren’t the only copycats. NFL teams have nearly doubled their collective 23-year average of quarterback sneaks (53) over the first six weeks of a season by running 104 — not all of the “Tush Push” variety — so far, according to The Athletic.

But there is a reason that Eagles’ signature play is often imitated — the Bears use it second-most frequently, while the Chiefs created an off-shoot fake field goal during which holder/punter Tommy Townsend converted as the rusher — and never duplicated.

“Look at the guys they have up front,” a second anonymous NFL offensive lineman echoed.

Giants defensive line coach Andre Patterson — one of the most-respected assistants in the league at his position — has had to ask his players to defend the “Tush Push.” He wishes he didn’t.

“If someone had the answer, we’d all be doing it,” Patterson said. “It’s a really difficult play and, I’m going to be honest, a really dangerous play.”

Here is Patterson’s breakdown of defending the “Tush Push” compared to a traditional quarterback sneak and why defenses don’t just turn it into tug-o-war:

“When the quarterback gets under center, you are going to take your two D-linemen and put them in those ‘A’ gaps (between the center and guards) real low, and your two defensive ends and put them in those ‘B’ gaps (between the guards and tackles) and they try to submarine.

“When it’s just a normal quarterback sneak, it’s two O-linemen on top of your body, which is normal football — bodies are always on top of bodies. But now you have 2-3 guys on each cheek of the quarterback pushing and they land on top of those other guys, so the guys at the bottom are in harm’s way.

“Necks, shoulders [are susceptible]. It can happen to an O-lineman, it can happen to a D-lineman. The dangerous part is the guys who are pushing are not on the ground and still chugging away on the guys who are on the ground.

“It’s difficult to defend because when you start adding more [defensive] people to it to push this way, now they go outside. If all they could do was that right there, then you take your two linebackers, put them behind your two guys and push the other way. But as soon as you line up in that position, instead of running a sneak, they toss the ball [to the wing] because you are short somewhere else. That’s the beauty of the play.”

The one time that Jones failed on the “Tush Push” — with two backup offensive linemen in as the wings — tight end Daniel Bellinger (knee) and center John Michael Schmitz (shoulder) were injured on the play. Just days before he was injured, Schmitz shared the minority opinion that “Tush Push” is “the same” as any other quarterback sneak.

Jets defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson has accused Eagles center Jason Kelce of lining up in the neutral zone on the play. Kelce said that defensive players soon will start “faking injuries” to get it outlawed. Alabama head coach Nick Saban lands on the side of safety concerns. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones likes anything that emphasizes the “traditional scrum” at the root of football.

What does a former center think? For starters, ESPN NFL analyst Damien Woody thinks the Eagles have the perfect storm of personnel to execute it, which could explain why the basic play wasn’t popularized until last season.

“The missing aspect of the whole thing is that Jalen Hurts is literally as strong as an ox,” said Woody, who spent 12 seasons with the Patriots, Lions and Jets. “He’s squatting what offensive linemen are squatting. So you combine arguably the best offensive line in football with a quarterback who is ridiculously strong and backs who are pushing the quarterback, it’s next to impossible to stop it. Other teams don’t have that personnel.”

Offensive linemen set in a four-point stance — mostly used in short-yardage and goal-line situations — on the “Tush Push” are also key.

“In football, we always talk about, ‘Low man wins,’ so when you are in a four-point stance, it’s about leverage and getting low,” Woody said. “The defensive linemen are trying to take your legs out, so you want to make sure you are as low or lower than them.”

Short-yardage situations are especially prideful moments for blockers.

“It’s just about firing out,” a third NFL offensive lineman said. “You are not worried about hand placement. Everything is about pad level and driving off the ball. If it’s allowed, it’s fair. If you ask me, I don’t think it’s fair we don’t get to hold, but it’s all relative to what the rules are.”

Just like the NFL didn’t ban five-wide formations from the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” era or the I-formation from the 1990s Cowboys, Woody believes defenses should be forced to find a way to stop the “Tush Push” rather than get bailed out by a rule change.

“It’s just a play, so go stop it!” Woody said. “Legislate it out? No!”

The debate will continue for at least the rest of this season.

Four flush

Imagine if the Jets’ Zach Wilson still winds up as the second-best quarterback picked in the first round of the 2021 draft.

Blasphemy? Not when you consider the bar is one step off the ground and sinking.

The 2021 draft class was just the fourth to have at least five quarterbacks selected in the first round: The Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence (No. 1), Wilson (No. 2), the 49ers’ Trey Lance (No. 3), the Bears’ Justin Fields (No. 11) and the Patriots’ Mac Jones (No. 15).

Putting aside the franchise-changing Lawrence, let’s look at where the other four are and where they might be headed:

Wilson: Benched last season, Wilson was supposed to spend this whole season learning behind Aaron Rodgers. That plan imploded when Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into the season. At first, it looked like a miscalculation to keep Wilson as the second-stringer instead of trading him for a mid-to-late-round pick and adding a veteran, but Wilson has cut out the devastating mistakes from his past and settled in as a game manager (80.7 rating, two touchdowns, one interception, 2-2 record over the last four games) keeping alive the Jets’ playoff aspirations. 

The Jets likely will decline his fifth-year option by May and then decide whether he is Rodgers’ backup again in 2024 or if he has any trade value. 

Lance: The boom-or-bust prospect (318 career passes at North Dakota State) is in the conversation for biggest all-time busts because the 49ers traded three first-round picks and a third-rounder to move up with an eye on taking a Super Bowl contender to the next level. After making just four starts over two injury-plagued years, Lance was demoted to third-stringer and traded to the Cowboys for a fourth-round pick to be their third-stringer.

Fields: At this moment, Fields is the next-best option to Lawrence. But for how much longer? He is 6-25 as a starter, and there were calls for his benching before back-to-back games with four touchdown passes. As his passing numbers have improved, his trademark running has been watered down (from 7.1 yards per carry last season to 5.0 this season).

The Bears traded out of the No. 1 pick in 2023 — passing on rookie sensation C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson — to stick with Fields, but they currently hold the top two picks in the 2024 draft and would be foolish to stay the course again with Caleb Williams and Drake Maye available. Fields might be auditioning for trade partners over the next two months — if he gets back on the field (right thumb). 

Jones: How many of Jones’ coaches will be blamed before it is accepted that he might be the problem? Matt Patricia and Joe Judge were easy targets last season because neither had an offensive background. But now Jones is flailing under Tom Brady-approved Bill O’Brien. 

Jones getting benched in back-to-back losses — the two biggest blowouts of Bill Belichick’s head coaching career — feels as if it is accelerating the Belichick-Patriots split. And a new regime will want its own quarterback.

For what it’s worth … Jones (74.4) and Wilson (73.4) rank No. 30 and No. 31, respectively, of 33 qualifiers in quarterback rating this season. The only ones worse are the Titans’ Ryan Tannehill (71.9) and the Giants’ Daniel Jones (71.7). Lawrence (91.7) and Fields (91.6) rank No. 11 and No. 12, respectively. Lance has not thrown a pass.

Quoth the Raven

Only one of the eight NFL divisions doesn’t have a zero-, one- or two-win team occupying the basement.

Some might say the NFC East — which hasn’t had a repeat champion since 2004 — is the league’s most difficult division. Others might say it is the AFC West because of the Chiefs’ decade-long run at the top. The best measure of difficulty always should be the lack of a cupcake to beat up on twice per year.

If the season ended today, three AFC North teams — the Ravens (4-2), Steelers (3-2) and Browns (3-2) — would be in the playoffs and the two-time defending champion and Super Bowl hopeful Bengals (3-3) would be out.

But, as tight as the division appears, a closer look suggests the Ravens really are in the driver’s seat.

The Ravens play seven of their 11 remaining games at home, which is a big advantage considering they have the NFL’s third-best home winning percentage (.715) since head coach John Harbaugh took over in 2008.

Need more proof?

The Ravens are the only one of the four teams to already play three division games and are guaranteed to have a better division record halfway through the six-game cycle than the Browns and Bengals. Because they already made their three division road trips, all three rivals still have to visit Baltimore, which sets up the possibility of a strong division record in case of a tiebreaker.

And for anyone who believes that cumulative point differential is a truer sign of a quality team than even a win-loss record because of the fickle nature of close games, take a look at this: Ravens +42, Browns +18, Bengals -27 and Steelers -31.

Traces of Aces

The Las Vegas Aces captured the WNBA title Wednesday night at Barclays Center. There was plenty of NFL flavor to that championship.

There was Giants tight end Darren Waller on the court filming the celebration for his wife, Aces star Kelsey Plum.

There was Aces and Raiders owner Mark Davis – who traded Waller to the Giants in March – dancing in the middle of a circle of players after making his way over to Brooklyn from 48th Street, where the NFL owners finished their fall meeting earlier in the day.

Oh, and does this count as the eighth championship won by retired quarterback Tom Brady? He has a minority ownership stake in the Aces.

College football game to watch

No. 16 Duke at No. 4 Florida State, Saturday, 7:30 pm., ABC

We try to spread around the spotlight in this space, and the top prospects at Ohio State and Penn State already have been mentioned in previous weeks.  

That said, you might want to start a doubleheader day with their Big Ten matchup (noon, Fox) featuring the early favorites to be the top two non-quarterbacks drafted in 2024: Ohio State receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and Penn State offensive tackle Olu Fashanu.

But, for the main course, let’s zoom in on a good one-on-one matchup between Seminoles edge rusher Jared Verse — a likely top-10 pick — and Blue Devils left tackle Graham Barton.

This tape could be the one used to determine whether Barton is a guard or a tackle at the next level, and thus if he is a mid-first-round prospect or an early second-rounder.

Verse has the speed around the edge — and sometimes lines up far wide to make sure he has the angle — and scheme versatility for a 3-4 or 4-3 defense. The Albany transfer could’ve been a first-round pick in 2023, but stayed in school and has just 2.5 sacks through in six games during a slow start.

In 2022, Barton had 17 “big-time blocks” — Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded blocks — and no other offensive tackle had more than 12. He has 35 career starts and already passed a test this season against Clemson, beginning his climb toward the top of a loaded class at offensive tackle.

Florida State receiver Keon Coleman, also a projected first-rounder, is coming off a season-best nine-catch, 140-yard performance.