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Jalen Carter's boneheaded penalty might have actually benefitted the Eagles

Originally posted on Inside the Iggles
By Anthony Miller | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 4:00 PM ET

Oh man Jalen Carter, here we go again.

During the Philadelphia Eagles' improbable win over the Los Angeles Rams, Philly was mounting an incredible 19-point comeback when in the middle of it might have been brutally bad for them. Less than midway through the fourth quarter, Carter was able to get the first of two field goal blocks to hold the deficit to 26-21.

That's when he did it again. Another stupid penalty to hurt the Eagles. This time, instead of spitting like in the Dallas Cowboys Week 1 game that got him ejected, he was called for taunting. That backed the Eagles up from their own 24-yard line to their own nine-yard line.

15 yards lost. A tough pill to swallow for the Birds, especially since it was once again another personal foul called on Carter. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff McLane observed Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith having a discussion with Carter on the sidelines after the play, describing it as Smith having some "choice words" for Carter.

This now meant that the Eagles would have to drive 91 yards down the field to score the game-winning touchdown. In typical Jalen Hurts style, he got the job done with an impressive 17-play drive ending in a touchdown score to Smith to take a 27-26 lead.

Thankfully for Carter, his teammate, Jordan Davis, came up clutch with a blocked field goal to end the game. The Eagles survived and completed the comeback with a 33-26 win over the Rams.

After the game, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni knew the question was going to come up about the personal foul penalties, so he addressed. Sirianni took accountability on it and told the media that he would address it.

"It's an emotional game. You can tell by our faces after the game. How emotional it can be, but we have to keep our emotions in check. We know the league, and rightfully so, is cracking down on the taunting and the s***-taking and that's what they want. I respect that and we have to do a better job because we had three personal foul penalties today."

Nick Sirianni says it is his responsibility to keep the team in the right emotional state and he says the personal fouls and taunting penalties can’t happen because they will cost the Eagles. He says he will fix it pic.twitter.com/yag3Ny05se
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) September 21, 2025

Sirianni must address this, as it is once again evidence that Carter still has some maturing to do. While the gesture he made to the Rams sideline doesn't seem bad, the NFL is cracking down on that kind of stuff, so it has to stop.

With that being said, saying the quiet part out loud now, it might not have been the worst thing in the world.

Carter's penalty might have actually helped out

Before going off the proverbial rails, let's break it all down.

Yes, the penalty was bad, and a team should never do anything that will hurt their field position. Now, this is condoning the act of Carter.

The penalty did present an opportunity for the Eagles to run the clock out more. If they had been 15 yards ahead of the nine-yard line, they might have had the ball for a minute or two less than they did.

That would have given the Rams almost three minutes to go downt the field and either score a touchdown or get closer to a field goal. A closer kick means that Rams kicker Joshua Karty maybe doesn't kick it as low and gets a clean shot off.

Los Angeles could have also been given time to score a touchdown with little to no time left. The Rams were moving the ball down the field relatively easily, and Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has a tendency to play his corners softer in coverage on the final drive.

Maybe the kick still gets blocked or something else crazy happens, but the penalty did allow the Eagles to kill more clock with a Rams team that had one timeout remaining. Again, this is not to condone the penalty, but those extra yards killed more clock, so a salute to Hurts and the offense for bailing out Carter at the end.

This article first appeared on Inside the Iggles and was syndicated with permission.

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