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Eagles Linebacker Forces Fumble By Punching Own Teammate in the Hand vs. Commanders

Eagles use “peanut punch” to cause a Dyami Brown fumble in the NFC championship.

Stephen Douglas

Zach Baun and Cooper DeJean combine to cause a turnover in the NFC championship.
Zach Baun and Cooper DeJean combine to cause a turnover in the NFC championship. / @NF
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The Philadelphia Eagles got off to a fast start in the NFC championship game, scoring on their first two drives. Saquon Barkley's second touchdown was set up by a Washington Commanders turnover that was caused when one Eagles defender punched a teammate.

With about six minutes remaining in the first quarter Dyami Brown caught a pass across the middle. As Brown ran across the field, cornerback Cooper DeJean wrapped him up. As Brown fought to get away, linebacker Zack Baun came in and punched DeJean in the hand.

Baun was trying to punch the ball and it worked out exactly as he hoped, as DeJean's hand then pushed the ball out to cause the fumble.

As everyone was excited to point out, this was a "peanut punch," named after Charles "Peanut" Tillman who was an all-pro cornerback for the Chicago Bears early in the 21st century. He kind of explained the play to ESPN in 2020.

Anyway, that's what Baun did and while a teammate's hand got in the way, it still did the job.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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