Eagles-Rams stock market: Bullies, Barkley and BG

The Eagles had it easy Sunday night, routing the Rams 37-20 on the heels of a historic performance from Saquon Barkley, whose 255 rushing yards was the ninth-best single-game rushing performance in NFL history.

While Barkley’s performance was the headliner, there were plenty of other developments to take note of in the weekly stock market:

THE BULL

HISTORY – The Eagles have been around for a little over 92 years to be exact, and never has the franchise seen a rushing performance like the one Barkley put on at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.

The superstar had a career-high and franchise-record 255 yards on the ground – powered by touchdown runs of 70 and 72 yards – and 302 yards from scrimmage, also the most in franchise lore, and the ninth-best in NFL history, and the most by anyone in nine years since Antonio Brown.

When Howie Roseman described Barkley as another weapon to explain his investment, who knew the GM was talking about the biggest weapon the franchise has had in nine decades?

BULLEBULLE – With all due respect to Barkely’s stellar season, the Eagles’ offensive line might get out of Southern California quickly because what they did to the Rams’ undersized front could best be described as offense.

The Eagles’ offensive line again produced mind-boggling blocks to unleash Barkley on an overmatched back seven with Landon Dickerson going 2-for-1 on Barkley’s first home run and a pulling Mekhi Becton closing the interior at No. 2.

“Our O-line is super smart and super versatile, and when you have that, they can block any scheme,” Barkley said. “You see defenses do a lot of things differently to make sure our run game doesn’t get going. But they also put themselves at risk. I kept trusting the system.”

VIC FANGIO – The Eagles veteran defensive coordinator has always been a thorn in Sean McVay’s side, and that continued Sunday when the defense got a beat on what LA was trying to do.

Finally, the Philadelphia D again held an opponent under 300 yards for the seventh straight time, the franchise’s longest streak since 2008. More importantly, Fangio’s group held a team featuring Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nucua without a third down conversion in 60 minutes.

THIRD-DOWN DOMINANCE – Nothing will explain a blowout better than countering the 0-for-8 Rams on third downs with 9-for-15 level efficiency. In fact, it indicated that things could and probably should have been a lot worse for the Rams.

THE BEARS

BG’S TRICEP – At the age of 36, Brandon Graham was playing at a fantastic level.

Against the Rams, the popular Graham wreaked havoc all night, finishing with a sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, a pass breakup and, unfortunately, a torn triceps that will end his season and possibly his career.

“I’m just trying to process everything right now. I haven’t gotten that far,” Graham said when asked about his future after confirming the injury. “I’m gonna keep my spirits up and keep enjoying it, man, because we’ve got a special team right now.

“And it’s time for some people to step up. I’m happy where we are. I’m happy as a team. If anything, I’ll go out happy with the way I played today. I I couldn’t ask for anything else with this team that we have. We just have to stay focused and I want to make sure that, as far as a manager, I make my presence felt as far as that part.”

ENDING INDECISION – A dismissal of Nakobe Dean with approx. With 1:15 left in the first half, the Rams faced a third-and-13 situation and instead of calling a timeout, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni allowed LA to run down the clock before the next play, essentially a white flag run .

It’s not a big deal if Philadelphia just wanted to go into the locker room understanding that it was getting the ball first in the second half, especially considering the first offensive play of the third quarter was Barkley’s 70-yard TD run .

But Sirianni called timeout with 33 seconds left, which begs the question, if you wanted more points, why not call the timeout after creating the third-and-long with Dean’s sack?

More so, when things went awry and the Eagles faced a 4th-and-7 near midfield with seven seconds left, Jalen Hurts’ attempt to drain the clock came up two seconds short. What would have been a ensuing Matthew Stafford Hail Mary pass was wiped out by a Josh Sweat sack, but the results don’t excuse the process that got Philadelphia in that position.

EARLY HICCUPS IN RED ZONE – The Eagles settled for field goals on their first two red-zone drives, and the second failure was particularly troublesome because of self-inflicted wounds in the form of three drive-killing penalties: an illegal man downfield flag on Dickerson, the rare offensive offside on Jahan Dotson and illegal motion penalty on Dallas Goedert.

All the flags were legal and the sloppiness kept the Rams in the game longer than they should have been.

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