Baltimore Ravens nose tackle Travis Jones dropped the fabulous Saquon Barkley to the cold turf for a one-yard loss on his only carry of the third quarter Sunday, leaving the running back with 44 yards rushing on the day. Barkley has had four separate carries this season for more yardage.
The Ravens had done a decent job to that point containing Barkley, but football games consist of four quarters, not three, and Barkley only seems to get stronger these days. As the Philadelphia Eagles ground out a 24-19 victory over a fellow playoff contender, Barkley finished with 107 yards rushing.
That fourth quarter included 11 carries for Barkley, including a 25-yard touchdown sprint, then six straight carries on a five-minute drive that ended with a game-icing field goal. It was not his best game statistically, but Barkley, again, showed what he can do with a game on the line.
“He makes good situations out of bad stuff, all around,” Eagles guard Landon Dickerson said.
Barkley now leads the NFL with 1,499 yards rushing, on pace to edge Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old single-season record of 2,105 yards, which was set when the season was 16 games rather than 17. Of much more importance to Barkley is that the Eagles are 10-2, winners of eight games in a row.
Of those 1,499 yards, 982 have come after halftime, and 481 in the fourth quarter – with six touchdowns and 17 first downs. Sunday was notable because the Ravens had the No 2 rushing defense in the NFL and had not allowed an opposing back to rush for 100 yards.
Baltimore’s plan to stop Barkley was to build a mighty wall and pay attention to plugging the gaps. Nnamdi Madubuike, the Ravens’ defensive tackle, said afterward, “For the most part, we did that, but at the end of the game, we let it slip away. We just let it get away from us.”
It was not supposed to happen quite like this. Barkley, 27, the former Penn State star who was the second overall choice in the 2018 draft, spent six seasons with the New York Giants, appearing in two playoff games. He played in every game only in his rookie season.
After a 2-2 start, the Eagles have become bonafide Super Bowl contenders this season. M&T Bank Stadium all but emptied after the field goal made it 24-12, leaving jubilant Eagles’ fans in green scattered in the purple seats to chant, “MVP! MVP!” at Barkley. He heard them.
“My mindset goes right to the locker room to enjoy the win,” he said after the game.
Barkley was grateful for a second chance – but he also happens to be running behind the best offensive line in the NFL, the retirement of center Jason Kelce notwithstanding. The addition of Barkley, in turn, seems to have energized that offensive line. It is serendipitous.
“You have Saquon back there, and he can make you look better,” said Lane Johnson, the veteran Philadelphia offensive tackle.
Barkley can pop through the gaps and break a long run. Barkley had two 70-yard touchdown runs as part of an almost absurd club-record 255-yard game on 24 November against the Los Angeles Rams. He has 11 carries of at least 20 yards this season.
Barkley was asked Sunday if he’d ever had more fun on a field. He misheard the question, and began talking about his fourth-quarter fumble that he’d recovered. He said, maybe stretching the truth a little, that he had not been as angry at himself since he was a “little kid.”
No: fun, not fumble. Barkley smiled.
“I’m having a blast,” he said.
Much to the displeasure of the fans of the Eagles’ archrival Giants, Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75m free-agent deal in March with Philadelphia, who play only about an hour south of Allentown, where Barkley went to high school. It felt a little like a homecoming.
Barkley was delighted to take on the challenge of joining a new team. The Eagles sound like they are a good team to join, and Barkley said he has enjoyed the camaraderie: conversations at the lunch table, grinding with his teammates through weight-room sessions.
“It kind of gives me a college vibe, a college feel,” he said Sunday.
Jalen Hurts, the Eagles’ dual-threat quarterback, has become more effective. Hurts threw for only 118 yards Sunday, adding 29 yards rushing on nine carries, but Nick Sirianni, their chatty coach, said Hurts played a strong game.
“I just wish they could give an O-line the MVP,” Sirianni said.
Hurts, who speaks softly and carefully, said: “I give a lot of credit to how our O-line plays in those moments and how Saquon is consistently getting downhill and kind of finishing,” Hurts said. “I see him in our team this year making a big impact in those moments mostly, especially when we have to lean on him at the end of the game.”
It was Barkley’s eighth 100-yard game of the season, tying Wilbert Montgomery’s 43-year-old team record with five games still to play. Barkley is 109 yards from breaking LeSean McCoy’s 11-year-old single-season Eaglees rushing record. Barkley has bigger things in mind.
Philadelphia did get a little lucky Sunday: Justin Tucker, the veteran Baltimore kicker fighting a mystifying slump, missed two field-goal attempts and an extra-point attempt, making a Lamar Jackson touchdown pass with three seconds left in the game irrelevant.
But the Eagles had also persevered. Sirianni was delighted, nearly getting a penalty for running downfield to congratulate wide receivers Parris Campbell and Jahan Dotson for throwing downfield blocks that enabled Barkley to complete his 25-yard touchdown run.
Of the 1-6 finish that blew their 2023 season to smithereens, Sirianni said Sunday, “Last year’s over. We don’t care about last year. We learned what we needed to learn from last year.”
Well, Barkley was not around last year.
“It’s a blessing having coaches who trust me, that can lean on me,” he said. “We’re really good at a lot of things, but we’ve just got to keep trusting the system – just got to keep trusting the guys up front.”
And right back at you, Saquon. The guys in the trenches up front have grown to appreciate the man they block for. As Lane Johnson said, “When you’ve got a guy like that, all he needs is a little bit of daylight.”
