After watching a rematch of last year's Super Bowl, filled with twists and turns before ultimately settling into a 21-17 modest revenge victory for the Eagles over Kansas City, all I really care about a day later is what is normally one of the most benign plays in football: A quarterback stopping the clock with an intentional incomplete spike at the line of scrimmage.
With time ticking down in the first half and Kansas City ahead 14-7, quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed a short pass to Jerick McKinnon to help the Chiefs get into better field goal range. All 11 Kansas City players dutifully hustled to the line, with the team out of timeouts, so Mahomes could fire it into the ground with a couple seconds to spare before halftime.
Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter, however, had other ideas. He lined up and after the snap he dove underneath the center's legs, hoping to get to the spot where Mahomes was going to throw the ball directly downward in order to intercept it or perhaps even deflect it up in the air.
And he almost pulled it off.
Where did Carter get such an idea? YouTube.
Maybe the internet is good, after all, I mused when talking about the play on Tuesday's Daily Delivery podcast.
"Some high school kid tried — and he actually caught the ball," Carter told reporters after the game. "So I was like, you know, that's a good idea. And I knew they were spiking it. So I tried to go for it."
Indeed, it has worked before. CBS Sports found two clips from high school games where a defensive player successfully dove to pick off a spike attempt.
