LONDON – Jake Elliott had just put the Philadelphia Eagles in front when the kicking team made the choice that cost them the game. With eight seconds left and a 17-16 lead, they kicked to Ameer Abdullah instead of sending the ball out of the end zone, and he ran it back 53 yards.
One second remained. Cam Little then drilled a 57-yard field goal as time expired, and the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Philadelphia Eagles 19-17 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, according to The Associated Press. The win moved Jacksonville to 4-1 and dropped Philadelphia to 2-3.
CBS Sports called the decision to give Abdullah a chance to return the kick a mistake. Elliott’s 48-yard field goal had capped a nine-play, 32-yard drive that began at the Eagles’ 38 with 1:35 left, a sequence that looked, for a few moments, like the Eagles stealing the game.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni did address the decisive kickoff. He said, “I didn’t make the right decision, and I lost us that game,” according to CBS Sports’ report. He put responsibility for the decision on himself rather than on the players who had fought to regain the lead.
The kick itself had its own story. Little missed an extra point a little over three minutes earlier, after Jaguars receiver Parker Washington‘s 27-yard fourth-down touchdown catch, because of a high snap from DaVon Hamilton, per NFL.com. Hamilton is a defensive tackle. He was in at long snapper because Ross Matiscik, the team’s All-Pro long snapper, hurt his shoulder on Jacksonville’s first possession.
Hamilton had filled that role once before, last season in Tennessee. This was different. Hamilton said, “It was not my first rodeo, but definitely a lot more intense,” and the Eagles even tried to ice him before the winning kick. His snap to holder Logan Cooke was clean, and Little did the rest.
Little said, “I knew it was in. It came right off the center of my foot.” The kicker, a confessed soccer obsessive who owns the longest field goal in NFL history at 68 yards, sprinted the length of the field with his arms spread in the celebration made famous by Jude Bellingham, in a stadium that normally hosts Premier League football. He later compared the missed extra point to giving up an own goal.
Cooke, the punter, admitted he and Little had been sulking over the botched point. Then Abdullah broke free. Cooke said, “Leave one second on the clock, keep playing football, and wild stuff happens.” Washington, who finished with six catches for 124 yards and two touchdowns, said the sideline knew what was coming once Little lined up. Washington said, “He has ice in his veins.”
The afternoon began with chaos and rarely settled. Rookie Josh Cameron returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, but four penalties wiped it out, including unsportsmanlike conduct calls that ejected Jacksonville defensive end Bryan Thomas Jr. and Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr., per CBS Sports. Jacksonville finished with 13 penalties for 100 yards. Philadelphia had seven for 43.
The Jaguars outgained the Eagles 408 yards to 232, and Trevor Lawrence threw for 331 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Yet they went 0 for 3 in the red zone. Before halftime they were stopped four times from the Eagles’ 1-yard line, the last a fourth-and-goal jet sweep to Bhayshul Tuten that lost six yards. Early in the fourth quarter, a first-and-goal from the 1 became a third-and-goal from the 14 after a false start and two delay-of-game flags.
Philadelphia had its own reasons to feel the loss. The Eagles arrived short-handed. Right tackle Lane Johnson retired on Tuesday, Cam Jurgens was traded on Wednesday, and Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith and several other starters were out. Darius Cooper’s 62-yard touchdown reception put them ahead at 14-7 before halftime, and Quinyon Mitchell intercepted Lawrence for his first regular-season pick.
The defeat was Philadelphia’s third in a row and the first time the franchise has been under .500 since Week 15 of the 2021 season, ending a 76-game streak of .500 or better that was the longest in team history, CBS Sports Research found. That is what a coverage lapse can cost.
For Jacksonville, the record under head coach Liam Coen now stands at 16-5. The red-zone problems and the penalty count will not go away on their own, though, and the Jaguars cannot count on a returner rescuing them every week. Their ability to move the ball did not translate into reliable goal-line execution on Sunday. Little’s final kick decided the result; it did not erase the problems that had left Jacksonville needing that kick.
Both teams now face quick turnarounds. The Jaguars move across London to Wembley Stadium next Sunday to play C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans. The Eagles return home to host Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers, who are on their bye week. The overseas result leaves Jacksonville with a winning record and Philadelphia trying to stop a losing streak, with very different questions to answer before their next games.
The unresolved question is what Philadelphia changes, not whether its coach accepts responsibility. NBC Sports placed the decision in the context of the NFL’s move of the touchback spot from the 30-yard line to the 35. On Sunday, leaving the ball returnable gave Abdullah a route to the Eagles’ 39. The return used seven seconds, leaving precisely enough time for Little to turn Philadelphia’s apparent escape into Jacksonville’s win.
