Late in the first half of Monday night’s Super Bowl rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes had a plan.
Eagles rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter had one too.
Mahomes had just connected with running back Jerick McKinnon on a short gain, setting the Chiefs up with a 2nd and 1 at the Philadelphia 25-yard line with just a few seconds left left in the first half. But with Kansas City out of time outs, Mahomes needed to spike the football to give Harrison Butker and the rest of the field goal team time to get onto the field to try a short field goal before halftime.
That’s when Carter, who was in on the tackle of McKinnon, remembered something he saw on YouTube.
As Mahomes collected the snap from center Creed Humphrey and started to spike the ball, Carter lunged under the center’s legs in an attempt to intercept the spike.
And he came so close to pulling it off:
Thanks to the NFL, we have a few different angles of just how close Carter came to intercepting this spike:
In the locker room after the game Carter was asked about the play, and he mentioned that he saw a clip of high school player on YouTube actually managing to intercept a spike, so the rookie from Georgia thought it would be worth the attempt:
Jalen Carter on the viral play where he almost intercepted Patrick Mahomes spiking the ball
“I saw it on the internet”
Saw it on YouTube so decided to try it in a game #Eagles pic.twitter.com/fkPVoHfcSt
— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) November 21, 2023
Mike Herndon, who covers the Tennessee Titans, managed to track down the clip in question:
While Carter could not complete the play, he and the Eagles still had the last laugh, as they pulled out the comeback win over the Chiefs, 21-17.
But in the process, they gave offensive line coaches from coast-to-coast one more thing to think about in position meetings this week.
