That moment everybody realizes Saquon Barkley is about to bust one

That moment Saquon Barkley gets the football, makes that initial burst through the line of scrimmage and darts into the open field.

That moment when he hits full speed and it hits you that nobody is going to catch him.

That moment when everybody who's watching realizes he's gone.

If any one thing defines this 2024 Eagles season, it’s the Saquon Barkley home runs. Not just the touchdowns, but the electrifying, length-of-the-field, game-altering touchdowns that send Eagles fans into a frenzy, turn the sideline into a euphoric mass of humanity and demoralize the team on the other sideline.

And it all happens in a split second.

“You can tell very early when he’s gone,” Jahan Dotson said. “I would say within about the first 10 yards. 

“Once he hits the safeties and they all seem flat-footed, they stand no chance. If you're flat-footed you have no shot. He hits the hole so fast. He hits the edge. Once he hits the sideline, he's gone. He has the breakaway speed to run away from anyone in this league. So I would say 10 yards – maybe 15 yards - and you know he's gone.

“He makes 4.3 guys look slow. It's crazy. It's insane, actually.” 

The NFL has been around since 1920, and nobody has ever had as many 60-yard touchdowns in a season as Barkley has had this year.

Six 60-yard touchdowns. One every 66 rushing attempts. 

Before this year, the most 60-yard touchdown runs in a season was four by Hall of Famer Jim Brown in 1963 and Adrian Peterson in 2012. 

Only 12 other backs have had three in a season. Barkley has twice that.

Including his time with the Giants, Barkley now has 10 career touchdown runs of at least 60 yards, and only Peterson – with 15 from 2007 through 2018 – has had more in NFL history.

In Eagles history, only three other backs had more than one 60-yarder in a season – Don “Heartbeat” Johnson in 1953, Brian Westbrook in 2006 and Miles Sanders in 2020 each had two.

To put Barkley’s performance in perspective, consider this: 

From 1963 through 1993 – a 31-year span – the Eagles ran 14,282 rushing plays over 470 games and had five 60-yard runs. 

Barkley has six in 396 carries.

And get this: Only 12 other running backs in NFL history have had six 60-yard touchdowns in their entire career. Barkley did it in 18 games.

“From my perspective on the sideline and just being next to Saquon all year and seeing how hard he works, it really just brings me a sense of joy to see him flourish and really have everything just come into fruition,” rookie running back Will Shipley said. 

“Those long touchdowns, that's what he expects on every play. Every time he touches the ball, he expects to bang his head on the goalpost. Every time."

League-wide, there were 16 rushing touchdowns of 60 yards or more this year. Barkley had 38 percent of them. Only Jonathan Taylor also had more than one.

“It’s so cool when you see him break through the line of scrimmage and just get a little bit of daylight and turn on the jets and go, and you know, ‘It’s showtime,’” Kenny Pickett said. “It’s not a matter of if he’s going to break one. It’s a matter of when.”

It’s always funny to see how quickly the Eagles’ sideline begins celebrating when Barkley clears the first wave of tacklers. You see hands raised, fists pumping and guys jumping up and down, and Barkley still has 40 yards to go.

“Us in the receiving room, we know if we hold our blocks for half a second, he can take it the distance,” Dotson said. "So we're trying to do our part, and when we do our part, you know, big things can happen because he's going to do his part.

“He truly has the ability to hit a home run on every single run. It’s kind of like a sigh of relief throughout the whole offense when you see him taking off, to know, yeah, we're going to score. We all take so much pride in those home runs.”

It’s been a magical year for Barkley, who led the NFL with 2,005 yards during the regular season, has rushed for 324 yards in two playoff wins and needs 148 yards to break Terrell Davis’s record for most combined regular-season and postseason rushing yards – 2,476 in 1998.

Barkley has a 5.9 average on 396 carries so far this year and is the only back in NFL history to average over 5.5 yards in a season with more than 375 carries. 

But his signature runs have been the 60- and 70-yarders. And he’s the first player in 77 years with more than one TD run of 60 yards in the same postseason.

And his teammates will tell you there’s nothing like that split second when he hits full throttle and everybody suddenly realizes ... Yep, he’s done it again.

“I don't know if I can explain it,” Jordan Mailata said. “I'd say when we execute our jobs and you know you're in the right position and you've executed your block, you just know it's going to go to the house.”

All of Barkley’s long touchdowns have been similar in that nobody has even been near him by the time he gets to the end zone.

It’s not like he’s stiff-arming anybody at the 20 or breaking tackles at the 10. He’s so fast and explosive and elusive that he just has this unique ability to run away from everyone.

Was that just a replay?

Nope. He did it again.

“The second one Sunday, I'm like, ‘Shoot, we need a drive right here on offense,’” Reed Blankenship said. “And sure enough, I'm watching the TV screen because I can't really see the field on the sideline, and boom, he hits that hole, and as soon as he hits the hole, I'm like, ‘Yeah, he's gone.’ 

“You just know. The fans have a better view than I do sometimes and you just start to hear this roar. It's football. Anything can happen. Especially with 2-6 back there.”

The Eagles have played 53 postseason games in their history. Barkley has played in two of them. Yet he’s got the two-longest runs in Eagles postseason history – the 2^nd-longest tied is with Brian Westbrook.

“It's exciting, it's energizing,” Zack Baun said. “The stadium is going crazy. I know when Lane usually puts his hands up, you know he's gone. “Those plays just bring so much life and so much juice to the fans, our offense, our defense, the whole team. Sometimes, you can't tell right away because he's back there bouncing and bobbing and weaving, but then he breaks a couple tackles and once he gets to the safeties, forget it. It's over."

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