‘Happy for him’: Even as an Eagle, Eli Manning supports Saquon Barkley
Former teammate and friend, Eli Manning, talks about the support and congratulations he has for Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.
Sports Seriously
PHILADELPHIA – All season long, the Philadelphia Eagles emphasized the collapse that ended last year on a sour note was in the past.
Which makes their latest triumph that much sweeter.
For the second time in three years, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl, this time thanks to their 55-23 victory over the Washington Commanders on Sunday in the NFC championship game. With seven rushing touchdowns, Philadelphia notched the highest scoring output ever in a conference championship game.
Of course, the addition of running back Saquon Barkley cannot be overstated, as he scored three touchdowns and racked up 118 rushing yards on 15 carries.
The Eagles trailed 3-0 before their first snap of the game, but they didn’t have to wait long for that to change. Quarterback Jalen Hurts – who added three rushing touchdowns of his own – faked a jet sweep and pitched a toss to Barkley to the left. The All-Pro back hit his lane at full speed and spun out of a tackle for a 60-yard touchdown to quickly make it 7-3. It was his seventh touchdown of more than 60 yards this season and third such score of these playoffs.
On the ensuing Commanders possession, Defensive Player of the Year finalist Zack Baun punched the football out of Dyami Brown’s hands and Eagles safety Reed Blankenship recovered. Six plays and two minutes later, Barkley was celebrating his second touchdown – on his second carry – of the game with 3:43 left in the first quarter.
The Commanders came within 11 points in the third quarter, but they made far too many mistakes to have a real shot at pulling off the upset. Running back Austin Ekeler fumbled the ball – the third time Washington coughed it up – with 22 seconds left in the frame. The Eagles scored on the next drive, following some goal-line chicanery as the Commanders tried in vain to subvert Hurts and the signature “tush push” to increase their lead to 41-23 with 12:24 to play.
From the first play of the game, the Eagles’ defensive line was in Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels’ lap. He barely escaped to avoid a sack on the opening snap, but wasn’t as fortunate three other times. The third sack gave the Eagles the ball with a short field with 10:19 remaining, and Barkley’s third touchdown put the exclamation point on the winning performance.
Two turnovers in the first half along with costly penalties made it an uphill climb for Washington. For Daniels, the loss ended a magical rookie campaign, as the Eagles denied him the chance to become the first rookie quarterback to lead his team to the Super Bowl. Daniels finished 29-for-48 with 255 passing yards to go with one touchdown, one interception and a rushing touchdown, which made it 34-23 with 5:01 left in the third quarter (he found Olamide Zaccheaus for a successful two-point score). But the Philadelphia defense sped him up, and he was off-target at the start before settling in.
Facing questions about the effectiveness of the passing game, Hurts played his best game in some time and finished 20-for-28 passing with 246 yards and one touchdown through the air. One week removed from looking hampered by a knee injury, he was mobile as ever. His first rushing touchdown, from 9 yards out with Barkley paving the way, gave the Eagles a 34-15 lead after the extra point with 8:58 in the third quarter.
Hurts’ favorite targets Sunday were tight end Dallas Goedert (seven catches, 85 yards) and wideout A.J. Brown (six catches, 96 yards, one touchdown).
As the two-minute warning in the first half approached, Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni left the offense on the field for a fourth-and-5 from the 45-yard line. The Eagles picked up a blitz and Brown gained a step on Marshon Lattimore as Hurts found him for a 31-yard gain, a component of the Philadelphia offense that went missing in recent games.
With the home crowd upset on a no-call on Lattimore as he contested a jump ball to Goedert, the fans received their wish on the next play, as receiver DeVonta Smith drew a pass-interference call in the end zone. Hurts tush-pushed his way for six points on the next play, and Lattimore was hit with an unnecessary roughness penalty, which allowed the Eagles to run their favorite play again for a two-point try that the Commanders stood up to leave the score at 20-12 with 1:44 before halftime.
Then disaster struck for Washington and the Eagles forced a fumble on a kickoff for the second time in three games. Special teamer Will Shipley collided with Washington’s Jeremy McNichols, who couldn’t hang onto the football. The Eagles recovered at the 24-yard line and it looked like the Commanders defense would hold for a field goal until rookie corner Mike Sainristil hit Barkley after he’d stepped out of bounds to trigger another unnecessary roughness call and keep the drive alive. Hurts hit Brown, who was no match for Sainristil on the outside, for a four-yard touchdown to push the Eagles’ lead to 27-12 and the rout was on with 39 seconds to go in the first half. Nonetheless, Daniels drove Washington into field-goal range, and Gonzalez made his third kick of the half to cut it to 27-15 as the teams went to the locker room.
The most trouble the Eagles had to overcome was a successful fake punt by Washington in the first quarter. Trailing 14-3 from their own 31-yard line, punter Tress Way perfectly floated a pass over the middle to rookie tight end Ben Sinnott for a 23-yard pickup, and the Commanders again picked up three points with a 46-yard field goal from Gonzalez.
In the second quarter, Washington’s Frankie Luvu ran free on a third-down blitz to drop Hurts for a nine-yard loss. Eagles kicker Jake Elliott missed wide right on a 54-yard field goal and Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin on a slant for a 36-yard house call. A missed two-point conversion left the margin in favor of Philadelphia, 14-12.
Rookie Will Shipley even got in on the Eagles’ big day on the ground, as the fourth-round pick from Clemson broke a 57-yard run late in the fourth quarter and capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown – the first of his career – to give Philadelphia its final advantage.
