Saquon Barkley is the best football player ever.
That’s it.
Ballgame.
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See you Sunday.
1. I’ll get to Saquon in a second, but this win is such a character win and really shows what this team is all about. So much went wrong. Missed opportunities. Blown chances. Dropped passes. Stupid penalties. Missed PATs. Bad decisions. Just one thing after another. You name it. But the one thing this team kept doing was fighting and battling, and that lethal combination of Saquon Barkley big plays and ferocious defense added up to a 28-22 win over the Rams in their conference semifinal playoff game and a meeting with the Commanders at the Linc Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. Whew. You have to love a team that can overcome adversity like this one, especially in must-win games in the playoffs. At this point, you take the W. But let’s be honest. This team is capable of so much more, of playing so much better. Still, they found a way. They keep finding a way. Great teams do.
2. Saquon Barkley. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a single player that’s meant as much to the Eagles as No. 26 has this year. Maybe Randall Cunningham in 1990. Without him, this is a good team. With him, they’re one more home win away from the Super Bowl. He does things that simply defy belief. On top of 255 yards in the first Rams game, Saquon ran 26 times for a franchise postseason-record 205 yards and touchdowns of 62 yards in the first quarter and 70 yards in the second quarter. He’s simply unstoppable. In the middle quarters, it was tough sledding for the running game and it got worse as the conditions got worse. But I love that even when that running game dries up Kellen Moore keeps dialing it up because he knows that eventually he’s going to bust a big one. We’ve seen coaches around here who haven’t done that. Where would this team be without him? Definitely not playing the Commanders next week.
3. It’s easy to say the Eagles don’t really need a high-powered passing game because of their running game and defense. But once again the passing game was just not good enough . It’s great that Jalen Hurts isn’t turning the ball over, but he just hasn’t looked comfortable since he came back from his concussion. He’s not throwing with confidence, he’s standing in the pocket way too long, he’s taking way too many sacks and he just doesn’t look right. Let’s go deeper: Hurts had 11 completions of at least 35 yards in his first 10 games this year and none in his last seven games. He dropped back 27 times and was sacked seven times, which is ridiculous. He got sacked more than a quarter of the time he dropped back. Including a ridiculous sack. Now, A.J. Brown dropped what would have been a 35-yarder down to the 2-yard-line just before halftime Sunday. And obviously by the middle of the second half the conditions had deteriorated to the point where nobody was going to be throwing down the field and Hurts also looked hobbled at that point. But the bottom line is this offense has too many talented people across the board for the passing offense to be this punchless against a bottom-10 defense. They’ve got to be better. Hurts has to be better.
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4. Nolan Smith is a flat-out beast and with Brandon Graham out for the year, Josh Sweat with just one sack in his last seven games and Bryce Huff a complete failure so far, the Eagles have desperately needed his production. And Smith just keeps coming up huge. He had two sacks last week against Jordan Love and a huge one in the fourth quarter Sunday, forcing a Matt Stafford fumble inside the Rams’ 40-yard-line that Zack Baun recovered, and the Eagles got a big field goal out of it. Smith has to be one of the most improved defensive players in the league, going from a non-factor last year to a ferocious playmaker on the best defense in the league. He plays like a maniac every play. In two playoff games, he’s got three sacks, three tackles for loss, two hurries, a forced fumble and two quarterback hits. He’s playing at such a high level right now and it’s fun to watch.
5. Things got a little sketchy in the final few minutes, when the Rams drove 70 yards for a touchdown with 2:48 left and then 60 more yards down to the 13 in the final seconds. They had 135 of their 402 yards in the final 4 ½ minutes. But really, I’ll take this defense over any other defense. I just love the way they play, the physicality, the intensity, the consistency, and that stretch when they forced fumbles on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter - the first forced by Jalen Carter, recovered and returned 40 yards by Isaiah Rodgers, the second forced by Nolan Smith and recovered by Zack Baun – was the pivotal stretch in this game. Those takeaways only led to field goals, but it was a stretch where the defense really started to get to Matt Stafford and the Eagles took command. It wasn’t perfect, and there were some scary moments, but this defense - along with Barkley - is carrying this team right now, and they’re going to keep the Eagles in every game, no matter what else is going on. Final totals from Sunday: The Eagles tied the franchise postseason record with five sacks to go with 10 tackles for loss, six quarterback hits, 10 pass knockdowns and two takeaways. It was the 14th time in the last 15 games that the defense has held an opponent to 20 or fewer points. Think back to how this defense played last year. Then watch this group. The transformation is astounding.
6. It’s funny to think back that a knock on Jalen Carter when the Eagles drafted him was that he didn’t play very many snaps at Georgia because they were so deep up front. People questioned his fitness level and his ability to be effective late in the game in the NFL. Now here we are. Carter is a flat-out monster, and he never leaves the field and he’s just as effective at the end of the game as the beginning. He’s unstoppable when he’s singled and sometimes when he’s doubled, and you just can’t block him. Carter is an unstoppable force, and all Carter did Sunday was pick up two sacks, five tackles, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, a pass knockdown and a forced fumble. He has come so far taking care of himself and working on his fitness so he can play at an extreme level for 60 minutes. He’s a kid who was blessed with a tremendous amount of talent, but he’s done everything he’s needed to do to get the most out of that talent, and I saw every game Jerome Brown played and he’s an Eagles legend, I’m going to say Jalen Carter is every bit as talented as J.B. And that’s astronomical praise.
7. Two catches for 14 yards with a long gainer of nine yards on top of one catch last week for 10 yards. That’s 3-for-24 in two playoff games for A.J. Brown, and if you told me before the playoffs that Brown would have 24 receiving yards against the Packers and Rams and the Eagles would still be playing I flat-out wouldn’t have believed it. The crazy thing is Brown has now played five postseason games in an Eagles uniform and has only had 30 yards once - in the Super Bowl. Now, there was the deep ball that he should have caught, but I’ll keep saying this: If the Eagles are going to win these next couple games, A.J. Brown has to be a factor in this offense. He’s too good not to be. When I look at the best wide receivers in the NFL, I’m going Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase as No. 1 and 2 and A.J. third. He’s such an elite playmaker and such a weapon with the ball in his hands. Fast, physical, tough. Too good to be 3-for-24.
8. The Eagles are sure lucky to have Dallas Goedert, who was 4-for-47 against the Packers and 4-for-56 against the Rams and is the Eagles’ leading receiver in the postseason. He’s got eight targets and eight catches. He’s just money. You’d love to get DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown going, but Goedert is Hurts’ safety valve, and as much as the Eagles missed him when he was out for nine games this year, his return has been a lifesaver for a passing game that hasn’t had much going for it lately.
9. You’re not going to find a kicker in the middle of January who’s better than Jake Elliott, but this is getting a little crazy. He’s now missed PATs in consecutive playoff games on top of his 1-for-7 from 50 yards and out during the regular season and I don’t care what Nick Sirianni says there’s no way his confidence in Elliott hasn’t plunged over these last couple months. Elliott has missed eight kicks in the Eagles’ last 10 games, which is wild. But … he also made all three of his field goals, including a pretty high-leverage 44-yarder in poor conditions late in the third quarter that gave the Eagles the lead for good. Elliott is now 22-for-22 in his career in the postseason on field goal attempts, and one thing you can say about Elliott is that he doesn’t let misses bother him. He has that ability to forget the misses and go out and make the next one. But, good grief, he has to be better.
10. Intriguing matchup Sunday against a Commanders team that’s playing with a tremendous amount of confidence and a rookie quarterback who’s playing at an astonishing level. The Commanders have won seven straight after a 7-5 start and certainly what they did against the Lions in Ford Field gets your attention. The Eagles saw 1st-hand what Jayden Daniels is capable of when he threw for five touchdowns - three in the fourth quarter - when the Commanders came back from 13 points down to beat the Eagles 36-33. The Eagles need more out of their passing game to beat a Washington team averaging nearly 32 points per game since late November, they need the secondary to get big stops and force some turnovers, and they need the pass rush to get to Daniels and force some mistakes. But those are all things that are possible. It’s going to take a heck of an effort by any team to come into the Linc and beat the Eagles.