Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, a Safety Dance and a homecoming Peanut Punch: Eagles defense dominates

TAMPA, Fla. — Darius Slay clapped his hands together over his head, held them there together, and waddled like a penguin in a circle. He was recreating his celebration after the Eagles stuffed a Buccaneers run attempt behind their own goal line. It was the signature play of the season so far for a defense that has kept the Eagles undefeated, and it deserved proper commemoration.

It’s a safety dance.

The play did more than just make the score 22-3 late in the third quarter of a game they would win, 25-11.

It announced to a prime-time audience that they, like the Bucs’ offensive line, will be blown away for the next decade of Monday nights by the 650-pound defensive tackle tandem of Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter.

It signified that this Eagles defense might be its best since Reggie and Clyde and Jerome and Seth.

And it let it be known that, even when franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts isn’t particularly good — he threw two more interceptions in another lusterless game — the Eagles still have the firepower to win. Counting the safety, they’ve forced seven turnovers in the last eight quarters, and they’ve come from every quarter.

“It’s a team defense. We’ve got playmakers all over the place,” said Davis, who played at Georgia with Carter, who is a first-round rookie.

Davis is a second-year first-rounder with the same amount of experience as safety Reed Blankenship, if of slightly purer pedigree: “Look at Reed. Undrafted. He’s making plays. He got a pick tonight. We’re all ballers. We’re all here for a reason.”

Davis and Carter are here for this exact reason: To win in the middle. They won. Again. And again.

Carter got a piece of a sack near the end of the second quarter. On the next play, Carter ran down running back Rachaad White and peanut-punched a fumble from behind; that is, he targeted the ball with his fist as he pursued and made the tackle.

He’s from Apopka, Fla., about 90 minutes Northeast of Tampa. This was a homecoming. His contingent of 35 family and friends, he reckoned, went crazy. He knows he did.

“I watched (Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman) do it growing up,” Carter said. “When the quarterback threw it my way, I was like, ‘This is my Peanut Punch.’ ”

His elders were awed.

“You see the young buck? He coulda just stayed chillin’ on the defensive line,” said Slay. “But he was comin’ in there, punchin’! Aaarughm!”

Carter sighed.

“It couldn’t have gone no better.”

Even better than the safety?

“I dunno. You right. That safety was kinda lit.” Lit, as the kids say, and timely.

» READ MORE: Eagles analysis: Birds move to 3-0 as Jalen Hurts and the defense wear down the Bucs in a 25-11 road win

Hurts had just thrown his second interception, and, as with the first, likely took points off the board. One play later, there were points on the board.

“We knew when the ball was on the 1, we were like, ‘We gotta get a safety. We gotta get a safety,’” Davis said.

And the play? Like a dam breaching.

“I’m watching it from behind, and I’m like, ‘This is crazy,’” Slay said. “Everybody was just ... going ... backwards. These are grown men who are very strong.”

“Yeah. It was just, like a wall,” Davis said, “and then, boosh.”

The Eagles were always supposed to be 3-0 after three weeks, and they were always supposed to win in the city by the other Bay, but it wasn’t supposed to happen quite like this.

It was Jonathan Gannon the Eagles were supposed to miss. Gannon, the genius defensive coordinator, and his playmaker defenders, sackmeister Javon Hargrave and pickoff machine C.J. Gardner-Johnson, all of whom left for more money and less winning.

Hurts and the offense, coordinated by Hurts’ personal, promoted quarterbacks coach, Brian Johnson, was supposed to outscore opponents and protect the defense as it settled into something approaching competence. To that, after Hurts’ two-interception outing, they still aspire.

Sean Desai, the new DC, was supposed to need a month or two of the regular season before his players could absorb his scheme and play at full speed. And who knew what he might get out of players like rookies Carter and Nolan Smith and Davis, Hargrave’s replacements, or Blankenship, or even 32-year-old defensive tackle Fletcher Cox?

Here’s what they got at Tampa Bay.

Blankenship, who missed the last game with a rib injury, hunted a Baker Mayfield throw and intercepted it.

After Hurts’ first interception, on consecutive plays, Cox and Carter split a sack that Mayfield fumbled (and Tampa recovered), then Carter forced that fumble 5 yards downfield. That turned into a field goal that made it 13-3 at the half.

» READ MORE: How D’Andre Swift and the Eagles’ run game saved the Old Men and the D

Smith laid a third-down hit on Mayfield’s ribs in the middle of the third quarter that doomed the quarterback’s deep throw, forced a punt, and took the fight out of Progressive Insurance’s premature poster boy for a few minutes at least.

After Hurts’ second interception, Carter and Davis collapsed the middle of the Bucs’ offensive line and forced a safety for the 22-3 lead, which became 25-3 after a short drive that ended in offensive inanity — an overthought, third-and-goal quarterback draw from the Bucs’ 2-yard line which, in losing 6 yards, failed in both concept and execution.

Of course, offensive inanity has been the theme of the Johnson/Hurts collaboration thus far.

Let’s throw Nick Sirianni under that bus, too. He’s the designer of this offense, and he endorses every decision either through voice or silence via headset, even if he did surrender play-calling duties 34 games ago.

The defense’s stats won’t look great, mainly because they’re playing so well early that the opposition runs up decent yardage late. Mac Jones and Kirk Cousins each rolled up 300-yard passing games in the Eagles’ first two wins, but the Birds have allowed 145 total rushing yards, which is 160 fewer rushing yards than D’Andre Swift alone has managed in their last two games.

More on that.

The Eagles clearly are fixated on fixing Hurts and their passing game. Before his first interception, the Eagles called 21 passes (two were scrambles) but just eight designed runs by backs.

As in Game 2, when the passing game failed for a quarter and sanity returned for the final three, the Birds leaned on their greatest strength, same is it ever was, that all-world offensive line. And, with the defense, it bailed them out.

That’s the way it’s happened in each of the first three weeks. Swift finished Monday with 130 rushing yards.

At any rate, the Eagles are 3-0, just like they’re supposed to be. They’re one of three teams with that record.

Considering the offensive challenges they’ve face, that’s something to dance about.