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Saquon Barkley dominates in return to New York as Eagles blow out Giants
Barkley totaled 176 rushing yards on Sunday, which — adding insult to injury — was the most he has ever run for in the stadium he called home for six years. His career high (189 rush yards) was well within reach, but Barkley opted not to come back into the game, save for one play. Barkley re-entered for the fourth-and-goal “tush push” play that got Jalen Hurts into the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Barkley set the tone early, delivering a big blow on his first catch of the game, scoring on a 3-yard TD run in the first quarter and ripping off runs of 55, 38 and 41 yards — three of the Eagles’ four longest plays in the game.
Barkley was met with a chorus of boos in his first game back at MetLife, although he admitted he probably shouldn’t have been surprised by the reaction.
“It’s kind of hard not to hear that,” he said. “I think I kind of, I didn’t help myself when I said earlier in the week, I didn’t think I was going to get booed, but they’re booing for a reason. It’s a compliment at the end of the day. That’s how I took it.”
Barkley also couldn’t help but see fans burning his jersey in effigy before and during the game.
“That was crazy. That was crazy,” he said. “I’ve seen my jersey get burned before on social media, but the timing of it. I’m locked in, I’m listening to my music, and I see the fans, and all I see is fans just pointing, and I look and I’m like what are they pointing at? I see smoke and I’m just like, where’s my jersey at?
“That was definitely different. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced anything like that in my life and hopefully, I don’t experience that again but, in that moment, I was ready for third-and-one. I’ll just say that.”
Bleeding Green Nation
Eagles at Giants: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Highlights and lowlights from Philadelphia’s win over New York.
Barkley was not only pulling Giants with him, but lugging the Eagles along, too, rushing for a season-high 176 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown in leading the Eagles to a 28-3 victory over Barkley’s former team, the woeful Giants, at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
Barkley outscored the Giants (6-3) and gained more yards (187) than his former team (119).
In their first NFC East game, the Eagles pushed to 4-2 and look in good position to turn around what has been a tedious first five games. The Eagles have the fourth easiest remaining schedule in the league with the final 12 games.
Over the last few weeks, based on a multitude of highly unreliable sources—the Eagles’ fanbase and the national media—Nick Sirianni looked finished. He was emotionally volatile. He was viewed more like “Sideshow Nick” than a quality NFL coach.
Sirianni and the Eagles looked pretty sharp on Sunday, doing what they were supposed to do against a substandard team like the Giants—squash them.
Big Blue View
Giants-Eagles ‘things I think’: Maybe Giants’ fans were burning the wrong jerseys
Giants embarrass themselves in almost every imaginable way
[The Giants] are 2-5 and the season appears to be lost. They are 0-4 at home, and continue to embarrass themselves in front of the increasingly less faithful MetLife Stadium crowd.
Sunday, honestly, was as embarrassing as you could possibly imagine for the Giants as a franchise.
Saquon Barkley ran wild. The former Giants star had 176 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. He had runs of 55, 41, and 38 yards. The only reason he did not surpass his career high of 189 yards rushing, set with the Giants in 2022 vs. Washington, is that he did not touch the ball in the fourth quarter.
Fans burned Barkley’s jersey in the parking lot before the game. He then burned the Giants.
After saying on ‘Hard Knocks’ that he would have a hard time sleeping if Barkley signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, it is hard to believe Sunday will be a comfortable night for Giants co-owner John Mara.
The Giants?
An anemic 119 yards of total offense, their worst offensive game this century. They had 107 yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1 of the 1999 season — 25 years ago.
In their four home losses, the Giants have managed 31 points — 7.75 per game. They have one touchdown and eight field goals. They don’t have a home touchdown pass.
Blogging the Boys
Amid all the Cowboys problems on offense, Dak Prescott’s play has been a contributor to their failures
There are a lot of problems with the Dallas Cowboys right now.
Here are the quarterback efficiency graphs for the last seven seasons. Dak Prescott has lived in the elite quadrant for most of his career. This is the first time he’s been in the bad quadrant. While it’s not all Dak’s fault, we should admit that his play is part of the problem. pic.twitter.com/GG2pDNYeZX
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 19, 2024
How is it possible that an offense with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb is having issues in the passing game? The Cowboys are third in the league in passing yards so the overall volume is high, but other factors like game script and abandoning the run affect those numbers. From an efficiency standpoint, the passing game hasn’t been good, and you may or may not be surprised to learn that Prescott’s performance has a lot to do with it.
NFL.com
2024 NFL season, Week 7: What We Learned from Sunday’s games
Philadelphia Eagles 28, New York Giants 3
- Saquon Barkley runs wild against former club. Barkley insisted revenge on the Giants wasn’t on his mind entering Sunday. What would have looked like if he had been out for revenge??? On the first possession, Barkley caught a pass on third-and-long and bulldozed DB Dane Belton. It was on. The running back was the best player on the field, generating big play after big play. Barkley galloped for runs of 55, 41 and 38 yards en route to 176 rushing yards on 17 carries. The running back did all that damage in only three quarters, resting for all but one snap of the fourth. It marked the second-most rushing yards in a game in Barkley’s career (189 in Week 16, 2019). Barkley’s 10.4 yards per carry were the most in a game in his career with 15-plus carries. Even with the offensive line missing three starters, the running back has shown the ability to hit home runs. His three runs of 55-plus yards this season are the most in the NFL. The Eagles still couldn’t score in the first quarter, and the offense was up-and-down Sunday, but leaning on Barkley was a cure-all.
- Giants’ offense is in trouble without Andrew Thomas. If this is what Brian Daboll’s crew looks like sans the starting left tackle — yikes. The Giants couldn’t generate a lick of offense. Daniel Jones was battered repeatedly by Philly’s defensive front, the ground game was silent and Big Blue generated 119 total yards (or 68 fewer scrimmage yards than Barkley alone). Given the state of the Giants offensive line, it was surprising that Daboll didn’t lean on the ground game early, with just three total handoffs in the first half. The game plan got Jones knocked around, and the quarterback missed a host of throws when he did have time. Daboll benched Jones with more than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter in favor of Drew Lock. The coach said after the game that he did so to create a “spark,” but Jones remains the starter. Instead of creating a spark, Lock simply turned out the lights on a forgettable game. The backup missed throws badly, fumbled twice and the offense remained in the mud. If Jones continues to take a beating in bad losses, the Giants organization will have to decide how long they’re willing to risk injury for the $40 million quarterback.
- Eagles throw a sack party at MetLife. Philly entered the day with 11 total sacks in five games. Sunday, Vic Fangio’s defense slammed the quarterback to the ground eight times, including seven on Jones. Everybody on the Eagles feasted. Nakobe Dean and Jalen Carter each generated two sacks. Getting production from those two critical young pieces will pace Philly’s defense the rest of the way. Notably, Philly did the damage without bringing extra rushers. The Eagles recorded all eight of their sacks with a four-man pass rush, the most sacks and the highest sack rate (21.6%) with a four-man pass rush in a game this season. Even Bryce Huff got in on the fun. Huff generated five pressures on 18 pass rushes against the Giants, his first game with multiple pressures this season. It was the type of performance we expected when Fangio signed in Philly. Now, they need to continue against better offenses.
Next Gen Stats Insight for Eagles-Giants (via NFL Pro): Dexter Lawrence recorded five pressures and two sacks on 17 pass rushes (29.4%) in Week 7, including his highest sack rate (11.8%) since Week 1, 2020.
NFL Research: Barkley’s 176 rush yards are the second-most by a player vs a former team in NFL history (CIN Cedric Benson had 189 rush yards vs CHI in Week 7, 2009).
Washington Commanders 40, Carolina Panthers 7
- Commanders roll, even without Jayden Daniels. The rookie sensation left the game with a rib injury before the end of the first quarter, and despite holding a 10-0 lead, Commanders fans were likely nervous about their offense for the first time since Week 1. Marcus Mariota didn’t need to save the day, but he certainly kept the train on the tracks, appearing very comfortable executing Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and leading six scoring drives in a runaway win. Mariota finished with an excellent line — 18 of 23 for 205 yards and two touchdowns — with one of those touchdowns coming on a beautifully improvised throw to fellow veteran Zach Ertz. Taking Daniels out of this offense surprisingly didn’t slow the Washington attack, which continues to hum, racking up 421 yards and converting 5 of 10 third downs against the NFL’s worst scoring defense (and one of the worst in terms of yards allowed per game). The hope is Daniels is back soon, especially because the going won’t be this easy every week, but it sure was impressive to see Brian Robinson, Terry McLaurin and Co. thrive even without their young star quarterback.
- Panthers descend to new low. The days of Andy Dalton lifting these Panthers to a competitive level are well in the past. Dalton dug his team a deep hole with two ugly interceptions, missing his target on a hurried screen attempt that ended in an early 67-yard Dante Fowler pick-six, then followed that up with another unsightly pass to Diontae Johnson — who Dalton expected to win leverage downfield and threw it accordingly — that had so little of a chance of being completed, Johnson never even turned to look for the ball until after it was picked off. Though the second pick didn’t hurt them on the scoreboard, Washington’s machine of an offense ran out to a 20-0 lead by halftime, forcing the Panthers into a one-dimensional place they can’t afford to enter. By the middle of the third quarter, Carolina was trailing 34-0 and the only reason to keep watching was to see if Bryce Young would get some reps. He didn’t until the final four minutes of the game, capping a dreadful afternoon with a 2-of-2 passing line for -4 yards. Talk about a forgettable Sunday.
- Is Washington’s defense figuring it out? The Commanders entered 2024 with a reputation for having the NFL’s worst defense, which was undoubtedly a motivating factor when hiring veteran defensive coordinator Dan Quinn as their head coach. In the first month, the results weren’t exactly inspiring, but Sunday marked the third time in four weeks in which the Commanders allowed 14 or fewer points and won handily. It was also the fourth straight game in which Washington’s defense forced at least one turnover. After giving up nearly 500 yards to Baltimore last week, I’m not about to claim the Commanders are suddenly a defensive juggernaut, but they’ve proven to have a nose for the ball which is a good start. This unit might become even more important if Daniels misses time with his rib injury, and their first test arrives next week when Caleb Williams and the Bears come to town. We’ll see if they hold up.
Next Gen Stats insight from Panthers-Commanders (via NFL Pro): The Commanders recorded an offensive success rate of 55.6 percent Sunday, their third game of the season with a success rate over 55 percent. No other team has more than one such performance.
NFL Research: The Commanders have scored 20-plus points in each of their first seven games of 2024, marking the first time Washington has achieved the feat since the 1999 season.
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Browns QB Deshaun Watson feared to have suffered season-ending torn Achilles
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was carted off the field in the second quarter of Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Bengals after suffering what is feared to be a season-ending torn Achilles, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported.
Coach Kevin Stefanski said after the game that Watson would undergo further testing to confirm the nature of the injury, but it “looks like” a season-ender.
NFL.com
Kyle Shanahan: 49ers ‘worried’ WR Brandon Aiyuk suffered ACL injury in loss to Chiefs
The San Francisco 49ers are “worried” Brandon Aiyuk suffered an ACL injury during Sunday’s 28-18 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters postgame.
Shanahan added that an ACL injury is not confirmed, but the team will know more Monday after running tests.