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Michael DiRocco, ESPN Staff WriterNov 6, 2024, 06:52 PM ET
- Michael DiRocco is an NFL reporter at ESPN. DiRocco covers the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously covered the University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN.com and Florida Times-Union. DiRocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a multiple APSE award winner. You can follow DiRocco on Twitter at @ESPNdirocco.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Travon Walker scored his first career touchdown because he picked rock.
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That’s what he used to beat defensive end Josh Hines-Allen in a best-of-three battle of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would be the other defensive end on the field with reserve Arik Armstead.
Walker threw rock and Hines-Allen threw scissors on the final turn, so Walker was on the field to pick up Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley‘s fumble at the Eagles’ 35-yard line and return it for a touchdown late in the third quarter to cut Philadelphia’s lead to 22-16.
Don’t look now…#JAXvsPHI on CBS pic.twitter.com/e1SZUQawAB
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“We didn’t want to be both off the field at the same time,” Walker said.
That gave Hines-Allen a pretty good view of Walker’s return. Walker scooped up the ball, bounced off right guard Mekhi Becton, broke out of an attempted tackle by wide receiver Johnny Wilson and then put a small move on quarterback Jalen Hurts at the 4-yard line.
“I actually seen [Becton] so I was already bracing for that impact right there,” Walker explained. “He was a big guy, too. He just helped give me a little extra momentum to get up out of there, so I appreciate that.”
Hines-Allen said he had to hold himself back from sprinting on the field early to celebrate Walker’s touchdown.
“They’re like, ‘Just go down, Travon [after recovering the fumble],'” Hines-Allen said. “I said, ‘Shut up. No, go score.’ It was almost like a back-and-forth.
“I just was waiting for him to score so I could run out on the field. I was like, ‘Don’t run Josh. Wait, wait, wait.’ And so as soon as he hit [the end zone], I was out there.”
It could have been the other way around — Walker running on the field to celebrate Hines-Allen scoring a touchdown — if Hines-Allen had chosen paper instead of scissors.
