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Writer's pictureAl Thompson

EAGLES FLYING HIGH WITH BARKLEY AND THE RUNNING GAME



Many Eagles players and coaches are openly gushing over the play of running back Saquon Barkley after just nine games.


Going into the NFC East matchup against the Washington Commanders, Barkley has recorded 171 carries for 991 yards and six touchdowns.


Added: Barkley rushed for 146 yards on 26 carries and two TDs, in a 26-13 win. He now has 1,137 yards and 10 TDs after 10 games.


In 2023, his last with the Giants, his totals for the 14 games he played in were 962 yards on 247 carries and six TDs.


His yards per carry have increased by nearly two yards.


He has 21 catches on 26 targets for 158 yards and two more trips to the end zone.



Those numbers are terrific, but they do not measure his sheer greatness. The 27-year-old from Whitehall Township, PA is playing the running back position- as Cowboys linebacker and former Penn State teammate Micah Parsons framed it – “peacefully,” now that he has a stud O-line and a dynamic quarterback in Jalen Hurts.    


Players and fans are still buzzing over Barkley’s now legendary 14-yard run against Jacksonville when at the start of the second quarter, he took a short pass from Hurts, then put a wicked spin move on Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd, then turned up field to pull off a Dr. J-like backward, no-look hurdle over Jacksonville cornerback Jarrian Jones before he was finally tackled.


There were seven Jacksonville defenders around Barkley when he was finally brought down.


The stadium, not to mention the Eagles sideline, went bonkers.



When someone started to ask Eagles Pro Bowl defensive back Darius Slay about the play, he interrupted the questioner with…“Is amazing,” Slay said. “I'm just gonna just throw that out there. I just got to say, I played with a lot of great, great, great players, Calvin Johnson and all that kind of great things…played against a lot too, but this probably, by far, probably the best football player I’ve played with.


"Stuff like that is just unheard of. And to witness that? Yeah, that's, that's crazy, you know, crazy stuff.


“I played with Megatron,” Slay continued. “I never seen Calvin jumping nobody backwards after shaking two people, then jump backwards. [Barkley’s] like, 6-foot, 230 maybe 225, so that's, that's impressive. Like, that's amazing. Yeah…he's that man.”


That’s just one teammate.



EAGLES O-LINE TALKS ABOUT THE BIRDS IMPRESSIVE RUNNING ATTACK

Center Cam Jurgens was asked what it’s like to have Barkley behind him.


“If you just drive and push and get a little bit of a hole for him, he can make a guy miss,” Jurgens said at his locker at NovaCare. “As long as you’re doing your job, he’s going to make you look a lot better.”


Jurgens was asked if he agreed with recent comments from observers that the Eagles are a running team first. The 6-foot-3, 303 pounder out of Nebraska answered with a breakdown.


“A lot more motions and getting more things involved ...when the running game’s going,” he said. “It opens up a lot of other things you can do. There’s a lot of stuff we can do with it.”


Jurgens was asked if the Eagles offense got this good like a kid’s teeth would gradually mature by wearing braces. The 25-year-old laughed.


“It is just staying true to what we are and who we are and how we can get better,” Jurgens said. “Slowly but surely, if you keep doing the same things over and over and doing it over and over again and working on your double teams and your combo blocks…you’re eventually going to get better at it.”


Lane Johnson put his two cents in regarding the running game.


“When you are able to run the ball effectively, it opens up so much,” Johnson said after the Bengals game. “First off, it wears down the interior defenders, weakens the pass rush…pucks the 'backers in predicament so the more we can effectively run block, set up play action, it just opens up everything.”



HURTS IS ENJOYING A GREAT ALL AROUND SEASON

Having Hurts as a threat to break a big play running the ball has also been key for the Eagles running game that is tops in the NFL with 1,585 yards after nine games.

The Commanders (7-3) are No. 2 with 1,535 yards and played one more game than the Birds (7-2).


Hurts has scored ten rushing TDs in 2024 after nine games. The26-year-old has rushed for 378 on 93 carries. Some of his runs and touchdowns rival any running back in the league.   


Hurts was asked what he thought of Barkley’s reverse leap over the Jacksonville defender:


“God has blessed Saquon with some special things,” Hurts said after the game. “I really genuinely pray he continues to use those things and the fullness of him and give him the glory with that because there's special stuff he's capable of doing. So we just need him to continue to be that type of player.”



NICK SIRIANNI TALKS ABOUT THE PLAYER HE LEANS ON AS MUCH AS ANYONE

It was brought to Sirianni’s attention that Barkley is on pace for 377 touches this year. He is rested during the week, but is the coach monitoring that?


“You try to take care of them and do what you need to do to win each and every football game,” Sirianni said. “You try to take care of them throughout the week.I think the two games – obviously not the last game, but the game before that and the game before that – we were able to get him out in the fourth quarter.


“So you try to monitor it as much as you possibly can. And that's really our jobs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and being aware of it on Sunday.


“But, yeah, always considering that with each and every one of our players with load management.


“I think our strength and conditioning staff and our trainers and our doctors give me really good insight on how to do that. And give our staff really good insight on how to do that.


Yeah, always on our mind with how many touches he has.”


What did the coach think of Barkley's backwards hurdle?


“It was the best play I've ever seen,” Sirianni said. “And I had no choice but to give him -- I've been giving out game balls this year for special plays. Obviously, Nakobe (Dean) gets one. Ends the game with I guess would you call it a walk-off interception? 


"I guess you would call it that. Even though you’ve got to take three knees. They should allow you to go to the next play.


"But Saquon's play, what I think is so cool, is there are going to be kids all over the country and all over Philadelphia -- I really think about that -- trying to make that play and talking about that play and simulating that play as they play backyard football or Pee Wee Football.


"They aren’t going to be able to make it because I think he's the only one in the world that can do that.


"I'm speechless. It was unbelievable, and the way the crowd -- when I looked up, like I thought I saw what I saw.”


"Sirianni was asked if Barkley is better than he thought he was now that you have him?


“We knew he was special,” he said. “Just when you're preparing to play against special players in this league, they tend to take so much of your time up of you thinking about them and you preparing to stop them.


"So, we knew he was special. I think when you're around him on a daily basis it's safe to say, yes, that he's even more special than I could have even imagined.”


BARKLEY AND HURTS GET INVITED TO MEET WITH AN AMERICAN LEADER

Barkley and Hurts were invited by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to play a round of golf with former President Barack Obama at the Merion Golf Club about two weeks ago.  

Barkley played with Obama’s golf partner and Lurie and Obama were the other team.


Barkley reported he and his partner lost to Obama and Lurie."I couldn't make a putt all day," Barkley said.


Barkley said Hurts simply walked the course and did not play. He said he stayed away from politics but asked the former president about what his thoughts were on how to be a leader.


Barkley would only share a snippet of Obama’s answer.


“I’ll leave that one to myself,” Barkley said. “But it was a really well thought out answer. His answer applies to what I can do as a leader not just in the locker room…but in everyday life. And in what I aspire to be during football and after football too.”


BARKLEY ON A PLAY THAT IS INDIGENOUS TO THE EAGLES

Barley was asked for his view of the “Tush Push” and has changed since he has been an Eagle?


He knew when he signed with Philadelphia, that when the Eagles are at fourth and one anywhere on the field, including one yard from the end zone, it is Hurts who gets the ball 99 percent of the time.


Barkley was asked if he likes the “Brotherly Shove.”


“Depends on how you look at it, right?” Barkley said at his locker on a recent Wednesday. “Could I have taken the mindset that I could have more touchdowns?


“Yeah, but the most important thing at the end of the day is winning football.”


Barkley then shifted to talking about the play itself and how it works. All he ever saw as a member of the Giants was Hurts being catapulted across the first down marker or the goal line in an unstoppable manner.


Now Barkley has full knowledge of the play and knows how unstoppable it is.


“The core of the play is just man-on-man…stop us! There’s something about that. 


"Everybody knows it’s coming. Everybody knows what’s going on. You can’t stop it. Every team can’t do it. There’s a reason Philly’s been so good at it for the last couple of years.


“I look at it more that it’s a statement. When you’re on the one-yard line with fourth and one…you know it’s coming and you can’t stop it. Some have some success here and there…but more times than not, we’ll get the best of them.


“That shows you how physical and the mindset of a team that we have. That’s what you need for a successful team.”


Barkley was reminded of when he was on Kelce's podcast and was told how impactful the play was from the one-yard line.


“I might run it from the two,” Barkley laughed. “I look at it like this…If I wanted to do the Tush Push, no score. I’m going to do my best to make sure I don’t put the ball at risk of taking a touchdown, because at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games.



SPIKING THE FOOTBALL IN CINCINNATI AND THE FUMBLE AGAINST THE JAGS

Against Jacksonville, the Eagles were rolling along with a 22-point lead well into the second half.


With 5:30 left in the third quarter, Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence finished off a 10-play, 61-yard drive and two-point conversion to make the score 22-8.


On the first play of the ensuing drive Barkley gets the ball and goes four yards before he stumbles after hitting two players – on Eagle and one Jaguar - and hits the ground. 


The ball came out. Then 272-pound defensive lineman Travon Walker grabs the ball and rumbles for a 35-yard touchdown and another two-point conversion.


The play looked like the ground caused the fumble. But after review, the play was ruled a fumble and a TD.


The Birds were rescued from a brutal loss by linebacker Nakobe Dean, who intercepted Lawrence in the end zone.    


“Once they called a fumble, I knew it was going to be a fumble,” Barkley said. “It’s happened to me before. It’s one of those things where if they had called it not a fumble, it wouldn’t have been a fumble.


"But they called it a fumble. I’ve got to do a better job protecting the ball. Those are weird because I felt I did have good ball security. 


"When you are falling down, the elbow kind of gets flipped under…the ball comes out. It’s kind of tough. No excuses, I’ve got to be better in that situation.


“That play kind of sparked Jacksonville. It made the game a lot closer than it needed to be.”  


On his last rushing TD of the day against the Bengals – he had three on the day – Hurts handed the ball to Barkley to spike it like has done with offensive linemen in the past.  


“That was my first spike…ever,” Barkley laughed during a session at his locker at NovaCare.. “So how did I do?” he asked reporters, “He handed it to me…To be honest, I’ve never spiked the ball before..so I went ahhhh…just do it.”


The running back talked about his approach to post TD celebrations.


“My celebration comes more from just joy,” Barkley said. “I’m not a planned celebrator. When I score, I just give the ball to the ref…I may run around, or do something like that because I’m a kid playing a game.


“I don’t have a signature celebration ... .yet.” Hand it to the ref and act like you’ve been there before. That still is my mindset.”


Eagles hope Barkley keeps his mindset focused on New Orleans in February. *


 

Some stats taken from nfl.com and pro-football-reference.com.

 

Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com

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