EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The man wearing the blue No. 26 jersey booed. He leaned against the railing — one voice among thousands in the upper bowl of MetLife Stadium — and yelled, uselessly, at the player whose nameplate he’d covered with tape.
Another man was less subtle. Above those once-beloved numerals was a single word written in bold red letters: TRAITOR.
There were dozens of Saquon Barkley jerseys in the lower bowl. Six wearing the new version, the green version, all stood. They clapped. They hugged. They celebrated the source of their rival’s ire. Some flapped their arms like wings. Some simply waved goodbye to the New York Giants fans who headed to the exits early, the folks who could no longer stomach watching their team’s one-time franchise player fuel the Philadelphia Eagles to a 28-3 win.
Barkley said he’d learned not to pursue “F you moments.” On Sunday, he delivered one anyway. On his first drive against his old team, he caught a third-and-long swing pass, ducked his head and bowled over an old teammate, safety Dane Belton, before spinning through another defender and surging out of bounds. Barkley’s 176 rushing yards — the second-highest total of any game in his career — included brutal runs in which Barkley jawed with old friends and asserted his dominance over a franchise that failed to sign him to a long-term deal.
“I probably talked a little more s— today than I usually do,” Barkley said.
Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagle, TD at MetLife Stadium 🔥@saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/d2OXOVhzES
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 20, 2024
Barkley didn’t know how he’d act once he finally returned to the city in which he’d spent six seasons. But he knew he wanted to win. Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown encouraged him to just be himself. Nick Sirianni, poking fun at his own behavior last week, said he told Barkley, “Coming from somebody that’s not emotional, don’t be emotional.”
“If the emotions of the game is something that helps you be even better, use it,” Sirianni said. “If not, flush it.”
Barkley could not avoid New York’s hatred. He arrived Sunday morning “locked in” while wearing headphones. He saw people pointing in the parking lot. He saw smoke. And he saw it was from his jersey being burned.
Once inside, Barkley was booed every time he touched the ball. He’d said earlier in the week he didn’t think he would be. (“I didn’t help myself,” he later grinned.) But it did nothing to burden him. He was too busy burrowing himself deeper into the kind of offense he’d always wanted to be a part of. He’d joined the Eagles in part because of their offensive line. In the second quarter of a scoreless game, he broke through with a 55-yard burst along the left sideline, following the block of a pulling center, Cam Jurgens, a trademark concept in Philly. It set up, three plays later, Barkley’s 3-yard touchdown run.
Sunday revealed the Eagles offense at its most dangerous. When Barkley can batter defenses, the rest of their options open up. When their rushing attack demands attention, their wealth of talent at wide receiver seizes advantages. On the next drive, even with Kenneth Gainwell (who was catching stray boos on his touches) in the game, Hurts delivered his best throw of the season on a fourth-and-3, when he struck Brown in stride along the sideline after he’d beaten cornerback Nick McCloud in a one-on-one matchup. The 41-yard touchdown broke the game open.
“I mean, anytime we get A.J. one-on-one, we’re gonna throw him the ball,” tight end Grant Calcaterra said.
The trouble has been creating that one-on-one matchup. Sometimes it seems like the Eagles are trying too hard. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s game plan once again failed to produce first-quarter points — the Eagles are the NFL’s only team without points in the opening 15 minutes of games this season. Their most promising first-quarter drive on Sunday, on their third possession, stalled in New York territory after Barkley lost three yards on a confounding Wildcat fake reverse. Hurts was sacked on the next play (one of five times on Sunday) and the Eagles punted.
“I think we got great calls,” Barkley insisted. “Kellen’s a wizard. He’s really good. But at the end of the day, we just gotta execute. And, no, we’re not executing early enough, and we gotta do a better job of that.”
The Eagles offense benefitted from a defense that didn’t surrender an offensive touchdown for a second straight week. “The defense playing their butt off like that, we’ve got to start faster and help them out,” Hurts said.
That defensive unit had an inconsistent start under new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, especially when it came to generating backfield pressure. The Eagles logged four sacks in their first three games. They recorded eight on Sunday. Jalen Carter and Nakobe Dean, who the team sees as future pillars on that side of the ball, collected two each. Meanwhile, a couple of defenders who have gotten off to particularly slow starts, free agent signee Bryce Huff and 2023 first-round pick Nolan Smith, each had one.
“Every time he touches the field, he gets more and more confident,” defensive tackle Jordan Davis said of Smith, whose two sacks through six games now doubles his rookie-year total. “We just need to keep him going, man. He has a high motor, has a high-energy drive. He’s a high-energy player, high-energy person. I just love to see him make plays. The blood’s in the water, man. He’s smelling it. He’s sniffing it. He’s ready to get after it.”
The defense is beginning to reclaim the disruptive demeanor they embodied in 2022, when a Jonathan Gannon-led defense led the NFL in sacks. Davis said the defensive front’s sudden improvement didn’t come from any major adjustment by Fangio during the bye week. “It’s not changes,” he said. “It’s just a mindset.” But they must prove their production will be there against better opponents. The Cleveland Browns, last week’s opponent, were ranked last in EPA per play (-0.25) when the Eagles held them to three field goals, and the Giants entered the weekend 24th in EPA per play (-0.08).
The propensity of sacks generated difficult scenarios for the Giants; they went 3-of-14 on third downs. The perpetual beating Daniel Jones was subjected to also prompted the Giants to bench him in the fourth quarter in favor of Drew Lock. With 10:32 left in the game, the Eagles removed their offensive starters as well. Sirianni, though, considered leaving Barkley in.
As an offensive coordinator under Frank Reich with the Indianapolis Colts, Sirianni had always been told by Reich to make sure to know when a player was on the verge of “doing something really special,” like breaking a record. Sirianni said he got word from the press box that Barkley was 14 yards away from a career-high in rushing yards. He relayed that information to Barkley.
“Let the other guys eat,” Barkley told him.
“I was like, ‘You’re special, dude,’” Sirianni said. “He’s a special player. He’s a special person. I read all the stuff that all the Giants players were saying about him. They said it was going to be war, but they all love him. I know this football teams loves him.”
At 4-2, the Eagles are a half-game behind the Commanders in the NFC East, and they’ll seek to stabilize themselves after their most definitive win of 2024. The 25-point margin was their largest against any opponent since beating the Giants 48-22 on Dec. 11, 2022. The Eagles have long tried to reclaim that sense of dominance, and, too often, in the wake of their 1-6 collapse to finish 2023, they’ve dwelled closer to a sense of dysfunction.
Sunday supplied the Eagles with the sort of win that summons confidence. Sirianni, who spends his Mondays considering what message to extend to his team, will have plenty of material. Perhaps he’ll start with Barkley.
(Top photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
