NFL Block Party Creates 30 Minutes of Craziness on a Sunday Afternoon

Four blocked field goal attempts transform three games, with the Eagles and Browns coming away winners and the Jets falling short.

Jordan Davis of the Eagles returns a blocked field goal for a touchdown on the game's final play as Philadelphia beat the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Sept. 21, 2025. Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

A trend suddenly swept through the NFL on Sunday afternoon in Week 3, and no kicker was safe.

In 30 minutes, four blocked kicks transformed three early-afternoon games in a rare occurrence. It marked the most blocked field goals in the league since 1991.

The Philadelphia Eagles did it twice against the Los Angeles Rams in a 33–26 win. The Cleveland Browns did it to the Green Bay Packers and walked off 13–10 winners. The New York Jets did it to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but didn’t get the desired result in a 29–27 defeat.

Philadelphia started the trend when Jalen Carter blocked Rams kicker Joshua Karty’s 36-yard field goal attempt with 8:45 left in the game as the Rams led, 26–21. The Eagles took advantage and drove 91 yards on 17 plays, and quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver DeVonta Smith with 1:48 left for a 27–26 lead.

Los Angeles rallied with quarterback Matthew Stafford’s arm on 10 plays, 44 yards to set up Karty with the game-winning attempt that also got blocked.

“We got in here in the locker room and I said, ‘This is what they got us for,’” Carter told reporters afterward about the blocks. “All points matter. If we could stop them from getting one point, all we got to do is win by one point. That’s what happened. You win by one point, you win the game. The field goals came in handy, and we all came out with the dub.”

Jordan Davis blocked the second kick, and he ran 61 yards with the ball to the end zone for an exclamation point on a comeback win. The Rams led by as many as 19 points and held the lead for most of the way in the clash between NFC titans.

“It came down to just the technique and the fundamentals of everything,” Davis told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people look at field goal block as just another play, just another down, get off the field, and check a box. But the way we talked about it on the sideline, we knew his angle. We knew his launch point when it’s at the 30-yard line, somewhere around there. We just hit the gap, put our hands up at the right time.”

Sandwiched between those blocks, Cleveland’s Shelby Harris blocked Packers kicker Brandon McManus’s 43-yard field goal try. If McManus had hit that field goal with 21 seconds left, the Packers could have walked away at 3–0.

Instead, Harris’s block ended up in Greg Newsome II’s hands, setting up the Browns near midfield.

Browns quarterback Joe Flacco needed just two short completions to set up a 55-yard game-winning field goal for Andre Szmyt, who drilled it. Cleveland trailed the entire way and didn’t score until the fourth quarter, and Szmyt got his chance to honor his late mother, Lala, who unexpectedly died on July 10.

“I want to do well this season for her,” Szmyt told reporters afterward via Cleveland.com. “She was my No. 1 fan. So I did it for my teammates and I did it for myself, obviously. But a part of me is always going to do it for her,” he added. “And I know she’s watching over me and she’s out there with me, helping me.”

Shortly after the Eagles-Rams game, the Jets looked to join the Browns at 1–2 with a big field goal block. Will McDonald IV blocked Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin’s 43-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, and McDonald then took it to the end zone for 27–26 advantage with 1:49 left.

But Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield took care of business and gave McLaughlin another chance on a seven-play, 48-yard drive. Mayfield’s completions set up McLaughlin for a game-winning 36-yard field goal.

“It is much of the same, resilient group, we stick together,” Mayfield told reporters afterward. “The whole team, when one part of it, one phase of it is a little bit down, others [have] to pick it up and be there for you. That’s what this team is all about. We support each other no matter what. It is a resilient, mentally tough group.”

McLaughlin and Szmyt weren’t the only ones to kick game winners. San Francisco 49ers kicker Eddy Pineiro walked off the Arizona Cardinals with a 35-yard field goal for a 16–15 victory. Los Angeles Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker did it to the Denver Broncos with a 32-yard field goal in a 23–20 victory.