Mike Sielski: Jalen Carter and a talented roster save the Eagles against the Rams, give them a shot at the Super Bowl

Mike Sielski, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 19, 2025

Published in Football

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PHILADELPHIA — Back in early September, when the only snow to be found came in a paper cone courtesy of Mister Softee, Jalen Carter spent several minutes at his locker in the NovaCare Complex, talking about the “rookie wall” that he insisted he hadn’t hit. He had been a rookie-of-the-year candidate for the first half of the 2023 season, so dominant at defensive tackle that it was obvious that the Eagles’ dare to take him with the ninth pick in the draft had paid off for them. Then the Eagles, in every aspect, fell apart, and Carter’s production slowed and the quality of his play declined, and months later, it was fair to ask why and whether he was past it.

“No, I don’t feel like I hit a wall,” he said then. “There’s a lot of excuses people are saying about what happened last year. I ain’t got no excuses. What happened, happened. We’re on to this year.”

This year for the Eagles already is better, already has surpassed the low standard of that horrid late-season slump of ‘23, and Carter is both a reason and a symbol for the team’s resurgence. After their 28-22 win Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams, the Eagles are one victory away from their third Super Bowl appearance in eight years. And from Carter to Saquon Barkley, from Zack Baun to Dallas Goedert, they have accumulated so much talent that they’re not only strong enough to beat a formidable opponent — and the Rams were one — but also capable of overcoming their own weaknesses and errors. The roster that Howie Roseman and his staff have put together sometimes allows the Eagles to win in spite of themselves.

Which is exactly what they did Sunday. They showed their few weaknesses and made plenty of mistakes, and the everlasting irony of this season is that, as great as the Eagles have been at times, the area that they considered for years to be essential to their success — to the success of any team that sought to be among the NFL’s elite — has been their softest target. Their passing game was a problem against the Rams, Jalen Hurts holding the ball too long too often, managing just 128 yards through the air, and taking a safety that pulled Los Angeles within a point late in the third quarter that made every frozen fan at Lincoln Financial Field nervous as hell.

But on the Rams’ next possession, Carter kicked off a stretch of play that demonstrated why he should be considered not just the best player on the Eagles’ defense but one of the best defensive players in the entire league. He punched the football out of the hands of Rams running back Kyren Williams, forcing a fumble that cornerback Isaiah Rodgers recovered and returned 40 yards to set up a Jake Elliott field goal.

That play, in and of itself, was a game-turner, but it was only a prelude to the two most important defensive plays any Eagle has made all season. Matthew Stafford had the Rams moving, and somehow back in the game after a 78-yard Barkley TD run had seemingly buried them. And on third-and-2 from the Eagles’ 13-yard line, with less than 80 seconds standing between the Eagles and one of the most stunning and excruciating losses in the city’s sports history, Carter burst through the line like a bull and sacked Stafford. A 9-yard loss. Fourth down now, and this time Carter charged through again, forcing Stafford into a quick throw that sailed out of bounds, driving him to the ground.

Two sacks, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits — Carter provided every ounce of validation that the Eagles could have asked for when they took the chance on drafting him in 2023. He’d been an immature kid at the University of Georgia, had been involved in a tragic road-racing incident that led to the deaths of two people, and there was plenty of risk in the Eagles’ decision to bet on him. But he has kept his nose clean here, by all apparent indications, and Sunday showed just what the Eagles thought he could be, hoped he could be.

“I know people look at me and think, ‘Oh, he’s supposed to be the best in the world at his position’ and all this,” he had said in September. “But at the end of the day, it’s still a team sport. Just like when I play and need them, when they play, they need me.”

Never more than on Sunday, with a shot at the Super Bowl on the line. Never more than in a snowy setting that no one will forget. Nope, no wall for Jalen Carter. No limits. No excuses. Just a great game when the Eagles had to have it.