Double doink is a sound no kicker likes to hear. Unfortunately, for Rams kicker Joshua Karty, that happened twice in the fourth quarter against the Eagles last Sunday, including a block by Jordan Davis at the buzzer, which led to a walk-off touchdown by Davis.
Jalen Carter and Davis are a lethal combination when it comes to blocking field goals. The two lined up together on both kicks, and they couldn’t be stopped in the fourth quarter.
On Tuesday, Eagles Special Teams coordinator Michael Clay says both Davis and Carter do a great job studying field goal protection.
“Jalen Carter studies field goal protection very well,” Clay said. “He understands it. Same with [DT Jordan Davis] JD. We have our meetings on Fridays, talk about who we want to attack on their field goal team, and everybody’s interested in it. Who really gets a lot of this credit is [Assistant Special Teams Coordinator] Joe P [Pannunzio] and [Senior Defensive Assistant/Defensive Line Coach] Clint [Hurtt] on Wednesday. They like to give them a little five-minute spiel on field goal block before I get to them on Friday. Then another person who helped out a lot, we watch a lot of the film, but [Pro Scout] Terrence Braxton in scouting, he does the advance, and he says, ‘Hey, this side of the line gave up a little leakage right there.’ So able to just confirm what our eyes are seeing. You watch so much film, sometimes the film lies to you, but to have somebody else fresh eyes helps us out and again, kudos to those guys and JB [CB] Jakorian [Bennett] did a heck of a job of actually going and hitting the punter [stopping] from him getting it and from all 61 yards later, JD’s in there having a grand old time.”
Karty made four field goals and two extra points. At some point, Carter and Davis saw something, and according to Clay, they did.
“I think he(Carter) caught something, and I don’t want to spill any of his secrets out there in the world, but I think he caught something where he could get that jump,” Clay said. “Then his technique with [DT Jordan Davis] JD to get, we call it a V-technique, to try and uproot those guards right there was outstanding. We always say you could get three yards of penetration, get your hands up. That ball trajectory probably hasn’t hit its apex. You could possibly get a block. One of the field goal blocks, I think it was right before the half we kind of had him loop around and he was still able to get some penetration in his hand up and I think when he feels the wind kind of go past his hand, it kind of confirms what he sees out there and he knows all I could go and get one.”
There are three facets of football: offense, defense, and special teams, and it was the third facet that ultimately won the Eagles the game against the Rams.
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