Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad Saquon Barkley is healthy and dicing up defenses again.
In today’s SI:AM:
🥩 Football and barbecue
🏀 An unlikely WNBA superstar
👁️ An overlooked muscle
Saquon’s career year
The Philadelphia Eagles turned heads this offseason when they bucked leaguewide trends and handed out a big free-agent contract to a running back, luring Saquon Barkley away from the rival New York Giants on a three-year, $37.8 million contract. Signing a guy with an injury history as long as Barkley’s to the fourth-largest current running back contract was a move met with more than a little skepticism. But 11 weeks into the season, there’s no denying Philadelphia made the right call.
Thursday night’s game against the Washington Commanders was just the latest example of how critical Barkley has been to the Eagles’ success. He had 26 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns—his fourth multi-touchdown game of the year—and also had two receptions for 52 yards. But the box score doesn’t illustrate just how big of a role Barkley played in the 26–18 victory. His two touchdowns came in the final five minutes of the game on long runs that helped the Eagles pull away in what had been a very tight game.
Barkley’s first score came on a crucial third down where the Commanders really needed a stop to hold the Eagles to a field goal attempt and keep it a one-score game. Washington defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. went to the outside to try to get into the backfield and Barkley dashed through the gaping hole created by his mistake. No Commanders defender was able to lay even a finger on Barkley before he crossed the goal line 23 yards later.
Like this if you love Saquon Barkley.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 15, 2024
RT this if you love Saquon Barkley.
Reply that you love Saquon Barkley.@saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/e4TKKo3rSN
The second touchdown—following a Jayden Daniels interception—really put the game away. It was a thing of beauty. Barkley made two quick cuts behind the line of scrimmage on a toss play and breezed past the Washington defense untouched.
This is a scheduled Saquon Barkley TD tweet actually @saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/zDRIu7hXsv
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 15, 2024
Barkley’s big game means he now leads the league in rushing yards per game with 113.7, by far the highest average of his career. He entered this season averaging 70.3 yards per game and had never averaged more than 82 yards per game in a season. It was also his sixth 100-yard game of the season, the most he’s had in a single season since his rookie year in 2018 (seven). He has as many 100-yard games this season as he had in the previous three combined. And he still has seven more games to go.
One reason Barkley is having a career year is that he’s playing behind an Eagles line that’s significantly better than the Giants’ was last season. But just as important is the fact that he’s fully healthy after playing through an ankle injury for much of last season. When was the last time you saw Barkley accelerate as quickly and run as fluidly as he did on Thursday night? According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Barkley reached a top speed of 20.78 mph on his first touchdown run of the night, his fifth run this season over 20 mph. That’s the most of any player in the league. He also has three of the eight fastest runs in the league this year.
Next Gen Stats also has a metric called expected rushing yards that takes the speed and acceleration of every blocker and defender on the field at the time of the handoff and uses them to determine the number of yards the ballcarrier should be expected to gain on the play. This year, Barkley ranks third in the NFL in rushing yards expected per attempt after ranking 13th last season and 17th in 2022.
Barkley is the driving force behind a Philadelphia rushing attack that ranks second in the league in yards per game, narrowly trailing the Baltimore Ravens. The Eagles had a very good run game last season with D’Andre Swift as the lead back, ranking eighth in rushing yards and ninth in yards per attempt, but Barkley’s addition has instantly made them one of the very best running teams in the league.
The Eagles’ offense as a whole isn’t markedly better than it was last season. They ranked seventh in the league with 25.5 points per game last year and are seventh with 25.9 points per game this season. But there are still benefits to having a top-notch running game, as we saw in the win over Washington. The ability to keep the ball on the ground late in close games is an effective recipe for victory—whether you’re chewing clock or busting long touchdown runs to put the game away. Avoiding a repeat of last year’s late-season collapse will be a lot easier for the Eagles with Barkley to lean on.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- For the Total Athlete issue of Sports Illustrated, Michael Rosenberg wrote about WNBA star Alyssa Thomas, who dominates the league despite barely being able to lift her arms above her head.
- Also in that issue is Matt Verderame’s story on how athletes are turning to vision training to up their games.
- Army quarterback Bryson Daily is one of the biggest stars in college football this season. Pat Forde has a great profile of the Texas native who’s winning over fans with his physical style of play.
- Georgia could be in trouble in Saturday’s critical matchup with Tennessee after running back Trevor Etienne was ruled out with an injury. The only healthy Bulldogs running back is a true freshman.
- Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker needs knee surgery and is headed to the injured reserve list.
- The Rays announced they will play their home games next season at the spring training home of a division rival after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Saquon Barkley Has Been Worth Every Penny for the Eagles.
