Penn State legend carries Philadelphia Eagles to the NFC Championship Game with historic performance

Back on November 24, Saquon Barkley ran for 255 yards and two touchdowns against the LA Rams in a 37-20 Philadelphia Eagles win. It was the biggest game of his historic 2,000-yard season, which ended just 101 yards shy of Eric Dickerson’s single-season NFL rushing record. Then, on Sunday afternoon in Philly, the Penn State legend met the Rams again, and had another historic performance in a 28-22 NFC divisional round victory.

With the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders advancing to the NFC Championship Game after a win over the No. 1 seed Lions on Saturday night in Detroit, Barkley’s 14-3 Eagles were in line to host the conference title game at Lincoln Financial Field if they could knock off LA. In Barkley’s encore, he rushed for 205 yards on 26 carries with 2 touchdowns, including a 78-yard TD that all but sealed the win.

However, Matthew Stafford marched the Rams back down the field to answer, making the game 28-22 with a four-yard touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson. On the ensuing drive, Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, a top candidate for head coaching jobs this offseason, took the ball out of Barkley’s hands on second-and-7, instead opting for a play-action pass with Jalen Hurts, which resulted in a sack and led to a punt. 

The Eagles thwarted a Stafford two-minute drill to escape with the win, but narrowly wasted Barkley’s legendary performance. His 205 rushing yards were the most in Eagles playoff history, as his 255 yards against LA in the regular season were the most in franchise history. On top of that, his regular season performance was the ninth-most single-game rushing yards in NFL history, and on Sunday, he cracked the top 10 in postseason history as well, replacing Timmy Smith in fifth-place. His single-game high at Penn State was 211 rushing yards in a 21-19 win over Iowa in 2017.

To go with his 78-yarder in the fourth quarter, he gave Philadelphia a 13-7 lead in the first quarter with a 62-yard touchdown run before the snow began to fall. 

While Barkley won’t win the award, he was in the MVP conversation throughout his first year as an Eagle, and Penn State fans are happy to see him thriving in PA once again.