Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter had a two-man swat party at the Linc on Sunday night in the Eagles’ 16-9 win over the Lions.
It really started during the week of prep.
The Eagles noticed on film that Lions quarterback Jared Goff has a low trajectory release and thought they would be able to bat down some of his passes. So then they spent all week in practice working on it and they were right.
“There’s some quarterbacks with a high arc release and some got a low one,” Carter said. “I feel like he’s got a low one. I don’t want to give all the tips out. But you see it on film. JD really started the momentum. He got two of them. I said, ‘Hey, if I see him about to release, I’m going to put my hands up.’ I got me two and it helped us win.”
Davis ended up with three batted passes and Carter had two in the win. So not only were the Eagles constantly in Goff’s grill all night, but they were getting to him even when they weren’t getting to him.
Davis’s first batted pass of the night (in the first quarter) fluttered into the waiting hands of Cooper DeJean for the game’s only turnover and DeJean’s first regular season interception.
“All those swatted balls, we been practicing that,” Davis said. “I don’t know if y’all got a chance to see that at practice. When we go out there, we put our hands up. We knew that Goff kind of throws at an angle. We just wanted to take advantage of that. I’m 6-6, not for no reason.
“Have to go out there, put my hands up if I can’t get to it for a sack or a QB hit or a QB pressure, I just need to put my hands up and affect the play. Coop had my back the first time and we just keep going.”
Davis said the Eagles talked about Goff’s arm angle on Wednesday and practiced batting passes during the week with a special drill. The balls were thrown by head coach Nick Sirianni, D-line coach Clint Hurtt and player development assistant Matt Leo.
If you’re wondering, Davis mentioned that Hurtt’s passes had a little extra zip on them.
“It just shows you that the things we do, the things we practice, it’s not for nothing,” Davis said. “It’s not just to waste time. It’s not just to go through the motions in practice.”
With three batted passes on Sunday night, Davis is up to six on the season, sharing the league-lead among DTs with Pittsburgh’s Cameron Heyward. In his first three seasons in the NFL, Davis had 4 batted passes and he now has 6 in 10 games this year.
Meanwhile, Carter has 10 since the start of the 2024 season. The only DT in the league with more in that span is Heyward.
“It’s just a feel,” Davis said. “There’s no real formula to it. Every QB is different. You’re going to get different blocks each time. There’s no easy way to do it. When the QB feels like he’s getting ready to set up and launch, you just have to put your hands up and hope for the best.”
The Eagles made Goff’s night miserable. While they sacked him just twice, they hit him seven times and were constantly in his face to the point where he completed just 37.8% of his passes after entering Sunday leading the NFL with a completion percentage of 74%.
“Just little stuff like that messes with a QB’s mind, messes with their mindset, how he passes the ball,” Davis said. “It showed in the game. Fortunately for us, we made it very hard on him from the pressure to the batted balls, everything.”
Hitting a quarterback can take him off his game but so can batting down his passes.
Sirianni knows that well from his time in the AFC South dealing with future Hall of Famer J.J. Watt, who finished his 12-year NFL career with 70(!) batted passes.
How demoralizing can those be for a quarterback?
“Very,” Sirianni said, “because you could have the right play called, everything could go right, and then it gets knocked down before you get into the execution of it. I think that's a really good observation. And it is, it's a little demoralizing when that happens because everything can go right and the guy gets his hands -- doesn't get free on a rush, but times it up and knocks it down.”
Moro Ojomo said the Eagles’ defensive tackles are taught to try to swat passes in situations where they’re either getting double-teamed or when they realize their rush doesn’t have a chance to get home.
It’s not always going to work but it did on Sunday night and it helped the Eagles get a win.
And maybe it’s not really all that complicated.
“If you can’t get there,” Davis said, “put your hands up.”