Saquon Barkley knows plenty about speed and he saw a ton of it from Jordan Davis on the final play of Sunday’s incredible win over the Rams.
Enough speed that Davis has a future at running back?
“Probably not,” Barkley said with a grin. “Probably not a future at running back, but I wonder what his speed was.”
That’s when Barkley was told that Davis reached over 18 miles per hour on his scoop-and-score touchdown.
“He was over 18!?” Barkley said before thinking it over. “Maybe he has a future at running back.”
The Eagles’ furious second-half comeback on Sunday would have been for naught had Davis not blocked Joshua Karty’s 44-yard field goal with just three seconds remaining. But Davis was able to get through the line, get a paw on the low-trajectory kick before scooping and scoring to send Eagles fans home from the Linc happy.
“I ain’t run that fast since probably my combine,” Davis said. “Shoot, I don’t know what miles per hour I hit, but I’m sure it was something pretty crazy.”
Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Davis reached 18.59 mph on his touchdown return, according to NFL NextGen Stats.
“Literally nobody was catching him,” Jalen Carter said. “He was running so fast. I’m proud of that man.”
Typically, that play is what the Eagles call a “no mas” situation. The right move is to secure the football, drop to the ground and lock up the win. But no one had any issue with Davis picking it up and rumbling 61 yards for a touchdown to put the exclamation point on a miraculous second-half comeback in the 33-26 win.
Not even Nick Sirianni cared.
“You’re supposed to go down in that area,” the head coach said. “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. I’d have been just as excited had he went down there, but he scored. I guess I’ll say that I was a little more excited, but it will be on the tape to say, ‘Hey, probably go down in this scenario,’ but he’ll probably get Play of the Game for that play.”
Probably? More like definitely.
That’s a play Eagles fans will remember for a long, long time.
“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. “But the way we talked about it on the sideline, especially after his last kick, we knew his angle, we knew his launch point when he’s at the 30-yard line, somewhere around there. We just hit the gap and put our hands up at the right time.”
Davis and his fellow Georgia Bulldog Carter take pride in their duty on field goal block and they each blocked a kick in the fourth quarter of Sunday afternoon’s win. Carter blocked a 36-yarder on the Rams’ penultimate drive and Davis blocked the 44-yarder to end the game.
After Carter’s block (and a taunting penalty that set the offense up at its own 9-yard line), the Eagles drove 91 yards on 17 plays to score a touchdown that officially erased their 19-point deficit and gave them their first lead since the first quarter.
But then the Rams were able to go 44 yards to set up what would have been a 44-yard game-winning field goal.
“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that someone was going to make a play on their field goal,” Jalen Hurts said, “especially looking at those two Georgia guys lined up next to each other.”
Hurts was right.
During the game, the Eagles noticed a low trajectory coming from Karty and also saw a weakness in the middle of the line. So they attacked and it ended up winning them the game.
“All points matter,” Carter said. “If we can stop them from getting one point, all we gotta do is win by one point. That’s what happened. We won by one point and we won the game.”
Even without his field goal block, Davis put together another fantastic performance and is off to a great start in 2025. After losing 26 pounds entering training camp, Davis has been a force in the middle of the Eagles’ defensive line.
On Sunday, he had the Eagles’ only sack when he chased down Matthew Stafford toward the sideline in the third quarter. He also combined with Carter to take down running back Kyren Williams in the backfield on 4th-and-1 early in the fourth quarter.
“It feels so good,” Carter said. “Because I’ve been with him for 5, 6 years now, since college. And he’s been doing this. This is new to y’all but to me it’s old. He’s been doing this and now it’s just showing, y’all are recognizing it.”
In his fourth NFL season, Davis is now looking like the player the Eagles thought they were getting when they drafted him with the No. 13 overall pick back in the 2022 draft.
Davis has an expanded role in 2025 and he’s playing like a star.
“Everybody in that room that has belief in me,” Davis said. “Everybody that believes, I think that’s one thing that keeps me going. The belief that the team has in me, the belief that the coaches, the front office, myself. The belief in myself, most importantly, just knowing that I could go out there and I could do it. And that I’m here to stay and I’m here to play.
“I don’t want to be a guy that’s just coming in on 1st and 2nd downs, stopping the run and just leaving. I want to be able to impact more, I want to be able to do more, my role in higher, my calling is higher. I’m willing to do that.”
Through three games in 2025, Davis looks like a completely different player.
Not only is Davis flashing more now than ever but he’s been consistent too and that’s his goal. Sure, Davis had the field goal block but that came after playing 45 defensive snaps and making an impact all afternoon long.
“He’s playing lights out right now,” safety Reed Blankenship said. “He’s playing with all the confidence in the world. I’m happy for him.”
It was a team effort for the Eagles to claw their way back into the game on Sunday. Hurts and the passing offense came alive in the second half and the defense got some major stops.
But no one will ever forget the final play of the game when Davis blocked the field goal and sent the Linc into a frenzy as he rumbled down the field for a touchdown before getting mobbed by his teammates.
“This time last year, it would have been hard for me to catch my breath,” Davis said with a smile. “I’ll tell you that.”
