When Saquon Barkley glanced up at a SoFi Stadium replay of his newest large run for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday evening, he occurred to see a graphic indicating he had 173 yards speeding — solely 16 shy of what he knew to be his profession excessive.
“I said, ‘Aw, I wish I never saw that,'” Barkley mentioned with a smile. “That’s just the devil talking, that’s how I look at it. … I’m a big believer that if it happens, it happens. Just let it come to you.”
Barkley determined to proceed to run for his teammates, not for information. Just a few carries later, each his private finest and several other extra superlatives fell proper to him together with his second large landing run on a historic evening.
Barkley ran for scores of 70 and 72 yards within the second half and completed with an Eagles-record 255 yards speeding in Philadelphia’s seventh consecutive victory, 37-20 over the Los Angeles Rams.
Barkley racked up the ninth-most yards speeding in a recreation in NFL historical past largely because of his large TD runs bookending the second half. He sprinted for a 70-yard rating on the opening snap of the third quarter, and he added one other large run up the center with 2:44 to play.
“Saquon has that ability to hit home runs, and so sometimes that’s how it goes,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni mentioned. “You get some short gain, short gain, short gain — boom, home run. Saquon is that type of player, and our offensive line did a good job of handling the variations of the front.”
Barkley had 302 whole yards — turning into the twelfth participant in NFL historical past to prime 300, and the primary Eagles participant — whereas additionally turning into the primary NFL participant with two 70-yard TD runs in a recreation since Maurice Jones-Drew in 2009.
Barkley leads the league with a career-best 1,392 yards speeding, together with a league-best seven 100-yard speeding video games in his seismic first season with Philadelphia after six irritating years with the Giants.
“To be honest, I’m not surprised,” mentioned Barkley, a two-time Professional Bowl choice. “I didn’t know I would have this much success, (but) I’m thankful to be here. I’m thankful for the fresh start. A big reason why I wanted to come here (is) I felt like this is a spot where I could rewrite my story and show everyone the type of player that I feel like I can be and was meant to be, and it’s working out right now.”
Saquon Barkley enters MVP dialog
With the record-setting season Barkley is having, he is being mentioned as an MVP candidate.
DraftKings Sportsbook offers Barkley the third-best odds for successful MVP behind Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
ESPN character Stephen A. Smith mentioned it may be a working again’s time to win the MVP award.
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 25, 2024
Whereas averaging 9.8 yards per carry, Barkley obliterated the Eagles franchise information of 217 yards speeding by LeSean McCoy in 2013 and 296 whole yards by Duce Staley in 2000. He additionally had the most important speeding efficiency ever in opposition to the Rams, exceeding DeMarco Murray’s 253 yards for Dallas in 2011.
A.J. Brown caught six passes for 109 yards and a TD from Jalen Hurts, who threw for 179 yards whereas NFC East-leading Philadelphia (9-2) surged in a 24-point second half.
Kyren Williams rushed for a rating and Demarcus Robinson caught a TD cross for the Rams (5-6), who misplaced their second straight residence recreation.
Matthew Stafford handed for 243 yards whereas getting sacked 5 instances by Philadelphia’s top-ranked protection, and Los Angeles could not sustain with a Tremendous Bowl contender within the second half of solely its second loss in six video games. Puka Nacua had 9 catches for 117 yards, and Cooper Kupp caught a 27-yard landing cross with 1:07 to play.
The Los Angeles protection gave up 480 yards, undoing a number of weeks of progress for a unit that additionally regarded overmatched early within the season.
“(Barkley) is getting tough, hard-earned yards, and then you give him a vertical seam like he got a couple of times,” McVay mentioned. “He has the explosiveness and long speed and the ability to finish. That is what opened and blew the game up for him. He was outstanding.”
The Eagles improved to 4-0 in opposition to the Rams within the Los Angeles space because the franchise returned residence, however they led simply 13-7 at halftime regardless of dominating either side of the ball within the second quarter.
Barkley had a mere 73 yards speeding within the first half for Philadelphia, however he broke open the sport and the Rams’ protection together with his deft run up the center to start out the third quarter.
“He makes a cut that I didn’t think anybody else could make,” Sirianni mentioned. “Like, he just stopped on a dime.”
Los Angeles answered with Robinson’s brief TD catch, however Kenneth Gainwell rushed for a 13-yard TD moments later, one play after Barkley’s 31-yard catch-and-run on third and lengthy.
Within the last minutes, Barkley discovered one other gaping gap in the midst of Los Angeles’ protection.
“One of our guys got out of the gap backside,” Rams nostril sort out Kobie Turner mentioned. “Once you give that guy space to run and now he’s up on the second level, he can make guys miss and has the speed to break away.”
