Davis, who dropped 26 pounds this offseason, blocked the game-winning field goal attempt and hit 18.59 miles on his game-sealing TD return, part of a defensive display that helped the Eagles get out of their rut on offense and move to 3-0.
PHILADELPHIA — Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell knew his Philadelphia Eagles teammate Jordan Davis was fast, but not that fast.
"I think he hit like 14-15 mph," Mitchell told Yahoo Sports postgame.
Davis actually reached a max speed of 18.59 mph after blocking a potential game-winning 44-yard Los Angeles Rams field goal and rumbling 61 yards for a scoop-and-score Sunday that helped shake a rocking Lincoln Financial Field in the final moment of a 33-26 stunner.
"18? God damn," Mitchell said. "Yeah man, he was moving."
So were the Eagles, who erased a 26-7 deficit with 26 unanswered points of their own. The final six were tacked on by Davis' return, and in the process he staved off what might have been an uncomfortable week of discourse for the defending Super Bowl champions.
Davis, who's in a contract year and shed 26 pounds from the end of last season to the start of this year's training camp, ramped up to a speed no NFL player weighing at least 330 pounds has recorded since at least 2017, according to the league's Next Gen Stats.
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Mitchell added: "He's always been fast. I mean, I think you've seen his 40-yard dash."
It went viral in 2022, before Davis went from supersized Georgia Bulldogs backfield wrecker to Philadelphia Eagles first-round pick. But Mitchell misremembered the time his now-teammate ran at the NFL combine that year.
"He ran a 4.78?" Mitchell asked after he heard the three numbers again.
He did, and, according to Davis, he hadn't ran that fast again until Sunday.
"Didn't know I was going to go that fast, didn't know I was going to make it all the way to the end zone," the trimmer-but-still-mammoth-sized Davis said at the podium postgame.
"I just started running, and my legs carried me from there."
Before that, it looked like Matthew Stafford was going to lead another game-winning drive. The Super Bowl-winning Rams quarterback is top five all-time with 49 of them, after all.
Stafford swiftly pushed Los Angeles into field-goal range, sucking more and more of the joy out of DeVonta Smith's go-ahead, fourth-and-goal touchdown reception with every completion he made.
A 9-yard toss to Puka Nacua here, a 12-yard pass to Nacua there and then a 9-yard throw to fellow Rams wideout Jordan Whittington to top it off. Los Angeles was already in striking distance of reclaiming a defining victory early in the NFC playoff race.
The Rams could still avenge their NFC divisional-round defeat from last season. Kicker Joshua Karty had already made four field goals on the day.
Then again, he already had one blocked, too, a 36-yarder midway through the fourth quarter that was disrupted by Davis' interior linemate and former Georgia teammate, Jalen Carter.
"A lot of people look at field goal block as just another play, just another down, put your hands up, get off the field, check a box," Davis said after the game.
"But the way we talked about it on the sideline, especially after his last kick, we knew his angle. ... And we just hit the gap, put our hands up at the right time, and then I seen the ball on the ground."
In the game's most critical moment, Davis did the honors.
He leapt, swatted the kick and followed the miss like a basketball player hunting an offensive rebound. Rams holder Ethan Evans tried to hop on it, except it squirted loose. Davis picked it up.
When asked about that moment, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni started playing back a memory from his first preseason leading the team. It was Aug. 28, 2021, and a scoop-and-score in the final minute gave the Eagles the lead, only to then afford the New York Jets enough time to tie the exhibition with a Hail Mary.
The backups were in. The game didn't count. Sirianni remembers it, though. And he maintains that, in that type of "no mas" situation, it's better to go down.
On Sunday, however, he made an exception.
"When there's no time on the clock and there's nobody out in front of you, I'm always OK with something like that," he said.
Besides, there are more important things for him to teach on tape. The Eagles' offense had its worst half of Sirianni's tenure against the Rams in Week 3.
A unit coordinated by the already-scrutinized Kevin Patullo mustered a measly 34 yards over the opening two quarters. In that span, they had four three-and-outs that amounted to a combined -3 yards. Quarterback Jalen Hurts, who came into the game averaging just 6 air yards per pass attempt, was 4 of 8 for 17 yards. Three-time Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Brown only had one target, after being targeted just nine times through the first two weeks. Smith, meanwhile, wasn't getting much more attention with only two first-half receptions to his name.
If it wasn't for Vic Fangio's bend-but-don't-break defense forcing field goal after field goal, the Eagles wouldn't have had a chance to stage a rally.
Fangio's defense was also responsible for a shutout in the final 29 minutes of game time that allowed Patullo's offense to get its act together and, in Brown's words, let it's "killers do they thing." Hurts finished with three touchdown passes. One of them went to Brown, and the game-winner went to Smith.
Without those two blocked field goals, there's no Eagles comeback.
And without a fourth-and-1 tackle for loss in the fourth quarter authored by (who else?) Davis and Carter, there might not be an Eagles comeback, either.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley had a front row seat to another dramatic blocked field goal touchdown return when he was at Penn State in 2016.
Cornerback Grant Haley collected the loose ball and ran it back 60 yards for a go-ahead touchdown against then-No. 2 Ohio State, at the time recording the school's first win over a top-two team since 1990. Penn State went on to win the Big Ten that season.
When asked about that moment as well as Sunday's, Barkley couldn't pick between the two.
"I don't know," he said. "I really can't compare those two, but me in the moment right now and just seeing JD striding down the field, that was pretty cool."
Davis' commitment to drop weight has already paid off. His teammates know it.
The 6-foot-6, 336-pound defensive tackle saved the day with a dream finish to what first looked like a nightmare in Philadelphia.
"Stuff like that matters. You never know," Barkley said. "All the weight that he lost. He might not make that block last year. He might not make that play last year."
Category: General Sports
