PHILADELPHIA — Saquon Barkley bounded backward in a manic millisecond that defied the mentality of common men. The leap should’ve been ludicrous. Instead, it was marvelous. It will only again be attempted by the bold, the brave and the absurd.
Who else upon receiving a third-and-6 swing pass could perform the two movements that preceded it? Who beyond Barkley could lower his shoulder, blow through a cornerback like a useless buoy, and, after a split-second setup step that belongs in a Barry Sanders reel, spin from the arms of a linebacker with the torque of a typhoon? Within whose other brain, upon seeing reinforcements closing in, do the synapses signal a jump straight out of Super Mario? And whose other calves have the capacity to clear another cornerback before the other tacklers at last prove those muscles belong to someone mortal?
“It was the best play I’ve ever seen,” Nick Sirianni said.
The head coach stammered at first trying to explain it at all. Like everyone else who watched the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-23 at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Sirianni had been reduced to just staring at the big screen agape, speechless about the running back who was “more special than I even thought.” He relished in thinking about how kids all over Philadelphia, all over the country, were going to try and replicate the ridiculous play on their playgrounds.
“Ain’t gonna be able to (do) it,” Sirianni grinned. “He’s probably the only one in the world that could do that.”
Barkley may be the only player in the world who could plan it. After Kelee Ringo watched Barkley fall back to Earth, the second-year cornerback ran to C.J. Gardner-Johnson on the sideline. “Remember when we talked about that?” he told the safety. Back in training camp, they’d bickered with Barkley over the running back’s claims that he could make such a move. It’d require not only a successful setup and spin, but also the decision of a defensive back to dive. It’d never happen, they’d argued. Until it did.
“It was supposed to happen the way it happened,” Ringo said. “That’s why it was so dope.”
THE 180 HURDLE??? DID SAQUON JUST INVENT THIS?!
📺: #JAXvsPHI on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/tYThjnbdgG— NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024
Not enough delirium for one day? The Eagles nearly squandered a 22-0 lead with sequences that were nearly as destructive as the astounding ones that built it. Barkley’s third-down leap only supplied a field goal within that initial surge. A largely forgettable first-half offense capitalized on a forced fumble by Sydney Brown on a first-drive punt and an interception by a diving Zack Baun, which supplied Barkley’s two touchdowns. He caught the first on a 20-yard wheel route. On the second, a 19-yard run, Barkley dashed untouched on a third-and-17 draw.
Barkley is the through line by which to understand the unraveling that nearly resulted in Jacksonville’s comeback — a convolution of controversy and complications. He’s firstly one of the main reasons Philadelphia remained out of reach. No player is more integral to the success of the Eagles offense than Barkley. No other player in team history has more yards from scrimmage than Barkley through eight games (1,071). Only LeSean McCoy and Brian Westbrook have otherwise surpassed that 1,000-yard threshold in the same span, and Barkley, who rushed for 159 yards against the Jags, has joined them as the only Eagles to have rushed for 100-plus yards in three straight games.
Even McCoy, who was inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Fame at halftime, offered a (perhaps biased) opinion on the identity of the Eagles offense: “Run the ball.” Kellen Moore has recently obliged. The first-year offensive coordinator continued his proliferation of under-center presentations against the Jaguars. Barkley rushed for 63 yards on nine carries in under-center snaps — a number that might’ve increased had fullback Ben VanSumeren (a converted linebacker) not exited the game during the second quarter with a concussion.
Barkley’s efficiency supports an offensive system whose running game aims to shape the defense favorably to its will. Jalen Hurts leaped untouched into the end zone on an 18-yard touchdown run on a zone-read keeper with Kenneth Gainwell that gave the Eagles their initial three-score lead in the third quarter.
But on the first play of their next possession, after the Jags scored to pull within 22-8, Barkley fell shortly after receiving a zone-read handoff, and the football popped loose after his elbow hit the ground and as he appeared to crawl for extra yardage. Jaguars edge rusher Travon Walker returned what was ruled a fumble for a 35-yard touchdown to turn a potential blowout into a one-score game.
The call was curious, to say the least. Jacksonville linebacker Ventrell Miller dove at Barkley during the run and made contact with Barkley’s left leg. By rule, Barkley’s subsequent fall and crawl would’ve appeared to mean that he was down by contact. But Mark Butterworth, the NFL’s vice president of instant replay, later told a pool reporter that officials ruled that, after Miller touched Barkley, Barkley also made contact with left guard Landon Dickerson. They deemed that Barkley had stumbled due to his contact with Dickerson, not Miller, which, in a curious decision that “surprised” CBS Sports rules analyst Gene Steratore, eliminated the possibility for Barkley to be down by contact.
“Therefore it was a fumble,” Butterworth said.
Still, the Eagles had several other opportunities to put the game away. After failing to convert on two Brotherly Shove 2-point conversions earlier in the game, the Eagles instead went with a pass on a fourth-and-1 situation in the third quarter. Hurts, flushed from the pocket, hurled the pass incomplete. He’d later compliment Jacksonville’s defensive front, saying their edge rushers “posed a challenge for us, not only on that play, but a lot of other plays in the game, too.” Such a development is concerning for the Eagles, who were 4-of-5 on Brotherly Shove attempts against the Bengals, which supplied two Hurts touchdowns.
“That play’s been our bread and butter, and it didn’t work tonight,” Sirianni said. “We’ll look at the tape. … We’re going to probably have to be ready to see that again.”
The Eagles, laden with talent, leveraged it to outlast the Jaguars. In a fourth-quarter drive that secured Philadelphia’s lead, Hurts hurled a 46-yard pass to DeVonta Smith, then, three plays later, on a third-and-22 situation, struck Smith in stride for a 25-yard touchdown.
SMITTY IS NOT OF THIS WORLD 🤯👽@DeVontaSmith_6 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/PZPAGdLtqh
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 3, 2024
Hurts, who finished 18-of-24 passing for 230 yards and two touchdowns, said his vision was limited on the throw. But he knew the Jags secondary was playing quarters, that he had Smith in a one-on-one on the outside, and that he’d thrown such passes to Smith over and over throughout their careers and during their offseason workouts.
“That’s a hell of a play he made,” Hurts said.
If there are any conclusions to draw about the Eagles, who at 6-2 remain in second place in the NFC East behind the Washington Commanders, it’s that their talent has often been capable of transcending their circumstances. On Jacksonville’s final offensive drive, after reaching Philadelphia’s 13 with 1:42 left in the game, Trevor Lawrence tried to hit running back D’Ernest Johnson on a wheel route in the end zone against Nakobe Dean. But the linebacker snatched the pass for a game-ending interception.
“Obviously, we want to end the game on our terms,” Hurts said. “I don’t think we did that.”
(Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)
