The Saquon show continues as Eagles take down Rams – NBC Sports Philadelphia

On November 25, 2024By Littum

Saquon Barkley is a god.

Howie Roseman is a genius.

The giants are idiots.

That could be as many as 10 sightings from this game.

The No. 1 Eagles made it seven straight Sunday night with a 37-20 victory over the Rams on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

They are now 9-2, tied with the Bills and Vikings for the 3rd best record in the NFL, behind the 10-1 Chiefs and 10-1 Lions. They haven’t lost since September.

It’s a great team that keeps getting better. Watch out, lions.

1. Let’s have a conversation about Saquon Barkley. I lack adjectives to describe what he does. Utter bat-beep absurdity. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, he opens the third quarter of a one-possession game with a 70-yard touchdown run and follows it with a 72-yarder to put the game away in the fourth quarter. Barkley is the sixth player in NFL history with two 70-yard touchdown runs in the same game. He was amazing on Sunday night. He finished with a franchise-record 255 rushing yards – and 302 scrimmage yards – ninth-most in NFL history. Wilbert Montgomery was incredible when he was healthy. Brian Westbrook was great. LeSean McCoy is possibly a Hall of Famer. But I’ve never seen anything like what Barkley is doing. He’s not just having one of the best seasons ever by an Eagles running back, he’s having one of the best seasons ever by any running back. He is now up to a career high of 1,392 rushing yards… with six games remaining. His career high was 1,312 two years ago with the Giants. If people don’t consider him a serious MVP candidate because he’s not a quarterback, they’re ignorant. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen, dangit.

2. This defense is just absurd. Absurd. Probably won’t get the attention they deserve due to no. 26, but they just shut down this high-flying Rams offense, holding them to 14 points, 222 yards and 4.4 yards per carry. game before their pointless drive at the last minute. They are playing at such an amazing level right now, strong in all phases. Coverage. Pressure. Tackling. Plays so well together. There is no weak link in this group. No opposing team can pick or go after. They’re just noise at every level, and it’s easy to forget that this group, as currently constructed, has been together for all seven games since Cooper DeJean replaced Avonte Maddox. This wasn’t the Browns or the Jaguars or the Cowboys or the Commanders or the Giants. This is a very potent Rams offense led by a possible Hall of Fame quarterback with two elite receivers. They gained 123 yards and seven points on their first two drives and then 122 yards and seven points on their next seven drives. By then the Eagles were up by 23 points and the game was over. Vic Fangio has worked a miracle this year, taking a bunch of new guys and a few holdovers from the NFL’s 30th ranked defense and turning them into the best defense in football. Incredible.

3. It was some truly next-level stuff from Cooper DeJean, who spent most of the evening glued to Cooper Kupp, who is just one of the best slot receivers in the NFL, a guy who once had close to 2,000 yards in a season, who is averaging 77 yards per game in his career. DeJean has been unreal since Vic Fangio inserted him into the starting lineup after the bye, and he’s shut down some really good receivers, but Cooper Kupp is in a different league, and on those snaps that DeJean was covering Kupp, the Rams veteran just couldn’t get something going. It’s so fun to watch this kid. How about this: The Eagles haven’t lost since he joined the starting lineup.

4. I didn’t think this was a particularly sharp game for Jalen Hurts, especially not early. He took a couple of sacks he shouldn’t have taken and made a couple of mistakes when he had guys open. Made some bad decisions in the pocket. But again, what he did was manage a game where the Eagles were run heavy with enough big throws to keep a defense honest, and he did it by playing flawless football. Without DeVonta Smith, he focused on AJ Brown, who once again came up huge. Hurts was 15-for-22 for 179 yards with a TD and no interceptions and a 108.0 passer rating. He has 10 touchdown passes, 10 rushing touchdowns and one interception in his last eight games. The numbers haven’t been flashy, but when you run the ball like this, they don’t have to be. Hurts does exactly what his team needs him to do. You better believe he’s a big reason why this team keeps winning.

5. Matt Stafford is not the easiest guy to sack because he gets rid of the ball so quickly. He had only been sacked 21 times out of 370 dropbacks entering the game – that’s 5.7 percent of dropbacks, and that was 5th best in the NFL. He had not been sacked at all in three of his last four games. But the Eagles found ways to get a lot of pressure on him, especially after the Rams’ first two drives. Milton Williams had two big sacks and Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and Nakobe Dean each had one. That’s five sacks against a quarterback who had been sacked four times in his last five games. The Eagles also had 11 quarterback hits, including three each from Williams and BG. It continues an encouraging trend that has seen the Eagles’ pass rush finally get going after a sluggish start. The Eagles had six sacks in four games before the bye, but they have 27 in the last seven games, and the combination of outstanding coverage in the secondary with constant pass pressure is hard to beat. Even for a high-octane passer like Stafford.

6. Without DeVonta Smith, you figured the Eagles would need a weapon or two in the passing game aside from AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert. And Saquon Barkley had a nice night in the passing game, where he’s being used more and more, but mostly Jalen Hurts just focused on Brown, who seemed to be open on every play. Brown caught six of seven targets for 109 yards, including catches of 28, 27, 19 and 17 yards and the 6-yard TD that was originally ruled an incomplete pass. Barkley has been so remarkable that it’s easy to forget that Brown is one of the best wide receivers in the game, and he showed why Sunday night, catching everything and picking up tough, physical yards after the catch. Brown is a beast.

7. The news that Brandon Graham is out for the year with a torn triceps is just heartbreaking, not only because he’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but because he’s playing at an insanely high level for anyone, much less a 36-year-old in his 15th season. If this is BG’s last game, it was a dud – one sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and a pass breakup. “I don’t want to go out like this, but if it’s not in the cards, I’m also happy with where I’m at,” BG said in the locker room. “But I’m not there yet. Let’s see how the rehab goes and then we’ll go from there.” The Eagles will really miss BG not only for his leadership and personality and energy, but because he plays at an extremely high level.BG’s sack gave him 76 ½ career sacks and moved him past the great Clyde Simmons into 3rd place in Eagles history. If BG wants to play another year, I sure won’t try to talk him out of it.

8. With BG out for the year and Bryce Huff on IR for at least another three weeks, the Eagles are suddenly very thin on the edge. Not that Huff did a whole lot before undergoing wrist surgery. Josh Sweat and Nolan Smith have been very good, but it’s a position where the Eagles don’t have a lot of depth. Rookie Jalyx Hunt has shown some promise, but he is raw and very inexperienced. One guy who could get a promotion is practice squadder Tarron Jackson, who was originally an Eagles 6th round pick in 2021 and played in 21 games for the Eagles in 2021 and 2022. Jackson ran Jared Verse on the scout team last week , and his teammates were excited for him. I expect him to be the next man.

9. Let’s talk about the running game. If you include Jalen Hurts’ 39 rushing yards and Kenny Gainwell’s 22, the Eagles had 314 rushing yards on 45 carries. These are insane numbers. Here’s one that’s even more insane: The Eagles have 2,127 rushing yards, a 5.2 average and 22 rushing touchdowns. The last team to get those numbers through 11 games? How about those Cleveland Browns from 1958. Yes, that was 66 years ago. We’re seeing the greatest running attack the NFL has seen in more than half a century.

10. It was cool to see Nakobe Dean on a night all over the field on one of the rare nights where Zack Baun didn’t make a bunch of splash plays. Dean has been overshadowed a bit because Baun has been so incredible this year, the Eagles’ defensive MVP so far. But Dean has been great, too, and it’s amazing to think about where he is now, having run with the second team all through training camp – behind Baun and Devin White. Dean had eight tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a quarterback hit and a fumble recovery, and in his first season as a starter he now has an interception, three sacks, nine tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries. I give the Eagles a lot of credit for sticking with Dean when he was buried deep on the bench as a rookie and injured last year. It was easy to wonder if the former 3rd round pick would ever become a viable starter, but Dean has been that good. Just always around the ball. Active. Physical. Sound tackles. And he’s only 23. He’s going to be a very good player for this team for a long time.