More Sports:

September 21, 2025

The pivotal plays from the Eagles' rollercoaster comeback over the Rams

A.J. Brown finally started getting the ball, and Jordan Davis blocked the make-or-break kick to save the Eagles at the last second.

NickTricome.jpg
By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff
Eagles NFL
AJ-Brown-TD-Eagles-Rams-Week-3-NFL.jpg Eric Hartline/Imagn Images

The Eagles finally got A.J. Brown involved in Sunday's wild comeback win over the Rams.

The Eagles looked dead in the water. 

The offense couldn't move, Saquon Barkley was kept from going anywhere, and A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were still quiet in the gameplan. 

This looked like their wakeup call, but the defense held it together just long enough for everyone to remember that Philly has two of the best receivers in football, and against some undermatched defensive backs. 

Points started piling up, the L.A. Rams' sizable lead suddenly narrowed, then just as quickly, they were down. 

And when it came down to field goals, down to the last second, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis weren't letting anything over their heads. 

The Eagles completed a rollercoaster comeback over the Rams, 33-26, on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. Jordan Davis blocked and recovered a kick for a walk-off touchdown to save the day – and push Philly to 3-0. 

The Birds are still undefeated, just barely. Here's how they pulled it off...

Quick pick

The Eagles had a highly ideal start defensively.

Four plays into the game, Zack Baun tracked the eyes of Rams QB Matthew Stafford, then slid over to jump the route of receiver Davante Adams for the first-quarter pick. 

From the jump, the Eagles suddenly had the ball just within Rams territory, which quickly snowballed into a "Tush Push" rushing touchdown for Jalen Hurts and an early 7-0 lead. 

Offensively, the Eagles continued to lean on their increasingly controversial signature. But maybe to a fault now. 

Stuck in quicksand

The Rams got on the board with a field goal, then forced the Eagles' offense into a three-and-out. 

Hurts went eight yards backwards, and Saquon Barkley couldn't find a lane. 

Stafford tossed a play-action bomb downfield to Adams for a 44-yard touchdown and a 10-7 L.A. lead, then the Eagles...went nowhere. 

Worse yet, Lane Johnson had to exit the game with a neck injury. Matt Pryor took his place at right tackle, but the difference was felt immediately. 

Facing a 3rd and 8 within the final minute of Quarter 1, Rams star pass rusher Jared Verse burst across the edge, past Pryor and to Barkley's attention in pass protection. 

It left a wide-open hole for L.A. safety Jaylen McCollough to run through, and he leveled Hurts for the sack to force a fourth and long and the punt.

Stagnant was an understatement for the Eagles' offense. 

Barkley had nowhere to go on the ground and only had four yards rushing for the quarter, while the Eagles on the whole could only move the ball a net 24 yards and an abysmal minus-2 in passing, accounting for sacks. 

The remainder of the half wasn't any better. 

The Eagles went three-and-out on all three of their possessions through the second quarter. The defense held strong enough to keep the Rams to three consecutive field goals, but that still built to a 19-7 L.A. lead approaching halftime.

The Linc crowd wasn't happy. Boos met the Eagles as they ran into the tunnel.

Wakeup call

The glass half full view was that the intermission would give the Eagles a chance to breathe, with the benefit of receiving the ball coming back for the second half.

But then John Metchie III muffed the kick return and was met with a wall by the time he recovered the ball and looked up. 

The Eagles were pinned back at their own 10-yard line to start, then Verse blew by Pryor again. Hurts was all alone. He got rocked, and the ball went flying out.

The Rams recovered, Stafford flipped that immediately into a touchdown pass to running back Kyren Williams around the edge. 

The Eagles were in a 26-7 hole and looked to be sinking quick.

The second-best time is right now

Hurts and the offense would have a do-over on the ensuing chaos, but they were in a spot where they needed to make something happen. 

A.J. Brown had been quiet all game and all season, so had DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, much to the scrutiny of offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, head coach Nick Sirianni, and to an extent, Hurts. 

So it seemed like everyone was forced to a point where they opted to throw the ball up and see what happens.

Lo and behold, Hurts to Brown for a big completion downfield:

Then Hurts to Goedert through the seam for the 33-yard touchdown pass:

The Eagles weren't down and out just yet, and after nose tackle Jordan Davis chased down Stafford at the sideline to force an ensuing Rams punt, Hurts and co. were afforded a chance to keep attacking with their pass-catching threats and stay in rhythm. 

Hurts went to Smith for a 16-yard gain, then Jahan Dotson for seven more. An unnecessary roughness call for a hit on Smith over the middle pushed the Eagles up 15. Then, after Barkley finally found an opening for a couple of decent runs to take Philly into the red zone, Hurts went to Brown again, this time in the end zone, to cut the lead to just five. 

The Eagles, with all their offensive talent, really needed to get Brown going in the passing game. The best time to do it was yesterday. The second-best time was now. 

Big stop, big risk, nothing for it

The seconds were ticking down in the third quarter, and the margin for error in a suddenly close game was narrowing down. 

Moving into the fourth quarter, the Rams were faced with a 4th and 1 at the Philadelphia 46. They went for it on a run to Williams up the middle. 

Davis and Jalen Carter stuffed the attempt. The Eagles took the ball back at midfield on a turnover on downs, setting themselves up for a real chance to take the lead.

But the offense tried to respond by taking their own chance. After a third-down sack by Byron Young forced the Eagles into a three-and-out scenario, the offense instead stayed on the field to go for it on fourth. 

Hurts couldn't force the ball through to Brown on the run. They gave the ball right back. 

Return to sender

The trade-off allowed the Rams to push forward enough into field goal range.

Stafford went for another to Adams in the end zone on third down, trying to exploit the matchup against safety Reed Blankenship in coverage again, but Blankenship course-corrected and did enough to ensure the incompletion this time around on a throw off the mark.

L.A. sent out the field goal unit for a 36-yard attempt, looking to settle for an eight-point lead pressing late into regulation.

Carter and Davis, once again, had other plans. 

They got their hands up in the trenches and in the way of a low kick from L.A.'s Joshua Karty. 

The Eagles recovered. No points when up on the board. Momentum swung again, though with a taunting penalty charged to Carter in between that pinned the Eagles back at their own 9.

Take your time

But in a way, that played to the Eagles' advantage, because their offense, even if it was slowly, had gotten into sync. And taking over with under nine minutes left, there's no other team in the NFL better at controlling the clock. 

And so they started chipping away. 

They, finally, remembered how strong Brown is, and used that power past some undersized Rams DBs through the air, even if they did everything right (like Darious Williams probably did below)...

Then they kept leaning on Brown, Smith, Barkley, and Hurts to truck them downfield.

The Eagles drained minutes off the clock, then with 1:48 left, Hurts got the pass to Smith at the goal line for the touchdown and a 27-26 lead. 

Sirianni made a call to go for two. The attempt failed. The game would come down to the defense making one more stop.

Walk it off, big man

But they looked all but cooked. 

Stafford, his other star receiver Puka Nacua, and Williams pushed the Rams into field-goal range to set up the walk-off field goal kick for Karty with three seconds left. 

Yet somehow, Davis got up and blocked it again, recovered it, too, then took off sprinting toward the opposite end zone for the walk-off touchdown. 

The comeback, unbelievably, came complete as the stadium roared in disbelief, then relief.

SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter

Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick

Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick

Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports

NickTricome.jpg

Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

nick@phillyvoice.com

Read more Eagles NFL Philadelphia Davante Adams Los Angeles Rams Matthew Stafford Jordan Davis Zack Baun Jalen Hurts

Videos

Featured

Limited - Visit NJ Congress Hall

New Jersey's Can't Miss Christmas Towns
Limited - Manayunk Development Corporation 3

Manayunk is merry, bright & bursting with holiday magic!

Just In

Must Read

Business

Meet the 9 people from the Philly area on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list

ChompShop 30 Under 30 2026.jpg

Sponsored

Manayunk is merry, bright & bursting with holiday magic!

Limited - Manayunk Holiday 1

Prevention

New cervical cancer screening guidelines endorse the use of self-swab kits

Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines

Lifestyle

Google reveals most searched jerseys, tickets and songs in Philly

Most popular jerseys Philly

Holiday

Yuletide at Winterthur brings storybook holiday scenes to life

Winterthur Dried Tree in Conservatory

Eagles

Eagles-Chargers Week 14 injury report, with analysis

120325JoeAlt

© 2025 WWB Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved