Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley had at least a first down, maybe even a touchdown, in his grasp that would have sealed the Eagles’ win in their home opener. Barkley instead bobbled a reception and couldn’t hold on to Jalen Hurts’ short pass. It was one giant drop on third down at Atlanta’s 10-yard line with 1:46 left in the game that stopped the clock late and forced the Eagles to settle for a field goal. Barkley’s botch was the opening the Atlanta Falcons needed to pull off the stunner with the kind of flawless drive the Eagles couldn’t duplicate. Kirk Cousins capped the winning drive with a touchdown pass to Drake London and Atlanta stunned Philadelphia 22-21 in its home opener on Monday night.
“I dropped the ball,” Barkley said plainly. “Let my team down today. Shouldn’t have put the defense in that position. If I make the catch, game’s over.”
Barkley and Hurts, who had put the Eagles ahead 18-15 on a 1-yard tush-push touchdown in the fourth, had a brief postgame conversation in the locker room. The message was simple: Hurts still had Barkley’s back.
“He’s going to trust me every time in that situation,” Barkley said.
After Barkley’s drop, Jake Elliott kicked a 28-yard field goal rather than the Eagles going for the score on fourth down.
“We wanted to go up six points. It didn’t work,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “I wanted them to be down and touchdown and see if they could drive the field. And they did.”
With a three-year deal for $26 million guaranteed, Barkley is the highest-paid running back in franchise history. The 27-year-old former New York Giant did have a knack for dropping the ball when he played for the NFC East rival.
“I trust him every day of the week to make a play,” Hurts said. “Just like everybody else. We’ll be better for it.”
Maybe next time, the Eagles will simply trust Barkley enough to just rush for the first down.
Even after London torched cornerback Darius Slay and scored, the Eagles still had 34 seconds to at least drive into field goal territory for Elliott. Hurts instead had his pass picked off by Jessie Bates III that ended all hope of Philadelphia’s own amazing comeback.
“The intent of that play was to go down the field,” Sirianni said. “He took a chance and the guy made a good play.”
Much like Barkley, Slay took the heat for the loss after he let London beat him for the winning TD.
“That’s on me Philly!! I owe yall one. DAMN!!!!!” Slay wrote on social media.
A year after a 10-1 start, the Eagles are already 1-1 with games against undefeated teams New Orleans and Tampa Bay on deck.
Barkley ran for 95 yards in his home debut at week after a week after he rushed for 109 yards and scored three touchdowns against Green Bay. Eagles fans booed when the opening drive of the game ended without Barkley touching the ball. Led by Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, Eagles fans went wild when he had consecutive 9-yard runs to open the second drive.
Barkley’s steady success wouldn’t stick.
The defense couldn’t smother the long play against Cousins and the defense for all 60 minutes.
Under new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, the Eagles established an early knack for allowing long drives that end with three points instead of seven. Atlanta’s Younghoe Koo kicked field goals of 39, 22 and 34 yards, the last one enough for a 9-7 lead in the third quarter. In their opener, the Eagles held the Packers to just three field goals when they drove inside the 20.
Cousins, signed to a four-year, $180 million contract in the offseason, came alive in the second half. Cousins connected with Darnell Mooney on a 41-yard TD pass that gave Atlanta a 15-10 lead. Cousins later hit Mooney for 21 and 26 yards on consecutive plays during the decisive drive.
“We can be beat, especially if we don’t take advantage of our opportunities,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said.
With No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown out with a hamstring injury, DeVonta Smith led the Eagles with seven catches for 76 yards and a score. Sirianni said he wasn’t sure how long Brown would be out.
“Of course, he’s definitely missed,” Hurts said. “It doesn’t change the trust I have in everybody else to step up. We just didn’t meet the moment. It wasn’t for us tonight.”
Saquon Barkley Takes Responsibility for Drop
There were two choices for Saquon Barkley – meet a large group of reporters around his locker after Monday night's loss to the Atlanta Falcons or skip the session and meet another time. It is always a tough choice for an athlete in a difficult time, in an emotional environment just minutes – literally – after dropping a game that was there for the taking.
Football is a game that is fueled by intensity and by focus and by competition and desire to succeed, above all else. Sometimes, it just doesn't go your way, and facing that disappointment is certainly not the easiest thing to do.
For Barkley, though, it was a simple decision: He showed accountability. He answered every question about the third-and-3 play late in the fourth quarter of the game at Lincoln Financial Field when quarterback Jalen Hurts put a pass on Barkley's fingertips and Barkley – who had been brilliant to that point – couldn't hang on.
And instead of a first down and a chance to run out the clock and preserve a three-point lead on the way to victory, the Eagles turned to placekicker Jake Elliott for a 28-yard field goal and a six-point lead that, as you know, didn't hang on.
Atlanta drove 70 yards in six plays and scored the winning points and what appeared to be a hard-fought win turned into a loss.
And a throng of reporters that would have been asking questions about Barkley's dominating performance instead crowded in front of Barkley's locker wanting to know what happened on the missed opportunity.
“I dropped the ball. I let my team down today, shouldn't happen,” Barkley said. “I was in position to make that catch, game over.
“I thought it was a great play call. I just gotta make that catch.”
The disappointment was obvious.
“It definitely sucks. Any loss sucks, but the game comes down to a few plays, and it hurts a little more when you're the one who makes a mistake on that play,” Barkley added.
This is called accountability, and it is one of Head Coach Nick Sirianni's core values and, ultimately, it is one of the most difficult to weave into the daily mindset. But it is a critical one for leaders, and Barkley is certainly one of the leaders in this Eagles' locker room.
Sirianni's Decision-Making Under Scrutiny
Consider the Falcons–Eagles game through the prism of Bill Belichick for a moment, and yes, we know the mental toll that would inflict upon you. But suck it up and do it anyway. You're an adult.
Here he is, Everyone's Next Head Coach, wanting desperately to hide the fact (despite his subtle tone-of-voice hints on Monday's Manningcast) that he wants the Atlanta Falcons to physically decompose out where we can all watch it, only to find out that not only are they gifted a win they did not fully merit, but that the coaching vacancy that may result from this game is Philadelphia's.
Yes, Nick Sirianni outthought himself yet again, throwing a pass on third down from the Atlanta 10-yard line with a three-point lead and 1:46 left to play, a play that screamed for a clock-eating Tush Push (or maybe even two) to set up a chip-shot field goal by Jake Elliott to ice the win. Instead, Saquon Barkley dropped said pass and Elliott kicked the field goal but left the Falcons 109 seconds to do the thing you never thought Kirk Cousins could do, rather than the nine seconds or so it should have been.
Anyway, Cousins does the thing, the thing being a 70-yard drive in 35 seconds that ends with a touchdown pass to Drake London. The Falcons take their 21-15 loss and turn it into a 22-21 win, and Belichick, who was sure he was going to get the Falcons job in January until the moment he didn't get it, ends up eating roofing nails for the rest of the evening.
Ahh, but while HR normally taketh away, sometimes it giveth as well, and now the guy on the hot seat that Belichick is everyone's first thought to fill is not Raheem Morris, the actual Falcons coach, but Sirianni, who has been the object of Philadelphia's discontent despite having helped the Eagles get to the Super Bowl two seasons ago.
Patience in the NFL is always defined in weeks rather than years; just yesterday, the Carolina Panthers took their top draft choice of a year ago, quarterback Bryce Young, and have benched him after two games for retread di tutti retreads Andy Dalton. Sirianni almost certainly won't be fired this week, but this is a hard one for him to explain away, and when the time comes for Eagles owner Jeff Lurie to drop the hammer, game management will be a topic. The only question will be when Lurie feels the need to scratch the itch, and whether he calls Belichick first or Belichick calls him. It's a world of chasing the reaper, and the lesson here is that the reaper does not take suggestions. It swings indiscriminately and lets everyone else handle the cleanup.
Eagles Looking to Bounce Back in New Orleans
The Eagles Insider takes his weekly trip around the locker room to capture the mood ahead of a big clash against the Saints in New Orleans.
The head coach shares his message as the focus turns toward the New Orleans Saints.
There is a lesson in every game and this is one to remember for every player and every person on this team: When things don't go your way, step up and take responsibility. Barkley gains enormous respect for the way he handled an extremely difficult situation and it is a guidepost for the entire team as the Eagles regroup on a short week and head to New Orleans to play the 2-0 Saints on Sunday.
Philadelphia had a win in its grasp on Monday night and it slipped away, ever so painfully. The best way to turn that negative into a positive is to do what Barkley did after the game: Stand tall, chin up, look in the mirror, and work to be better the next time out.
