PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles rode into the NFC Championship Game on the strength of Saquon Barkley and the defense, knocking off the Los Angeles Rams, 28-22, on Sunday in the divisional round.
In other words, nothing’s changed.
Barkley proved to be the Rams’ kryptonite once again, rushing for 205 yards. He broke off two touchdown runs of 60-plus yards, including a 76-yarder in the latter stages of the fourth quarter that set off a party at Lincoln Financial Field, complete with “MVP” chants and snowballs being slung into the night.
His performance was reminiscent of the Week 12 matchup against L.A. when he popped off for a franchise-record 255 yards.
When the game was in doubt — and it was after quarterback Jalen Hurts was taken down for a safety, that closed the margin to one late in the third quarter. Former Georgia teammates Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith Jr. came up with forced fumbles on back-to-back series to set up a pair of field goals that gave Philadelphia some breathing room. Then Barkley played closer.
There will be some questions about Hurts’ health (he appeared to injure his left leg in the second half) and whether the passing game is up to the test heading into Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders. But there’s no denying the effectiveness of the formula that got them there.
Biggest hole in the game plan: Clock management to end the first half. Coach Nick Sirianni’s handling of the situation was questionable. After a Hurts sack moved the Eagles back to the Rams 45-yard line, Philadelphia could have taken a time out with about 20 seconds left to try to run a play that would get back into field-goal range. Instead, Sirianni let the clock run down to three seconds to set up a Hail Mary, which led to another Hurts sack and zero points for the Eagles.
Most surprising performance: Eagles cornerback Isaiah Rodgers replaced an injured Quinyon Mitchell in the lineup and came up with one of the biggest plays of the game, scooping up a Kyren Williams fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter and returning it 40 yards. It looked like Barkley cashed in for his second TD of the day but was ruled short, leading to a Jake Elliott field goal for a 19-15 Eagles lead.
Eye-popping stat: Barkley reached a max speed of 20.78 mph on both of his TD runs. He has nine rushing TDs on the season where he reached 20-plus mph. Prior to this season, the Eagles had just six such touchdown runs going back to NGS debut in 2016. Los Angeles Chargers rookie wide receiver Ladd McConkey is the only ball carrier who has hit a faster max speed (20.84) this postseason. — Tim McManus
Next game: vs. Washington Commanders (Saturday or Sunday)
The Rams’ postseason run ended with the loss to the Eagles on Sunday, as the team scored 22 points with the snow coming down for much of the game in Philadelphia.
The offense found the end zone twice: a four-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford to tight end Tyler Higbee on the Rams’ first drive of the game and another to Higbee with less than two and a half minutes remaining in the game to make it a six-point game.
Stafford completed 26-of-43 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Stafford ends his third playoff run with the Rams with 15 passing touchdowns in the playoffs for Los Angeles, tying Kurt Warner for the most in team history.
The teams traded possessions pretty evenly through three quarters before the Rams struggled to protect the ball, with fumbles by running back Kyren Williams and Stafford on back-to-back drives in the fourth quarter.
According to ESPN Research, the Rams are the first team to lose a fumble on back-to-back drives in the playoffs since the Dolphins in the 2016.
Eye-popping stat: Stafford’s first-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Higbee had 0.4 yards of separation at the arrival at the throw. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, that’s the fewest yards of separation on any Stafford passing touchdown in his Rams career.
Promising trend: The pass rush. A week after tying a playoff record with nine sacks, the young Rams defense sacked Hurts seven times, giving them a total of 16 in a two-game span — the most sacks over a two-game span in the playoffs since 1963 when team sacks became official, according to ESPN Research.
Biggest hole in the game plan: Stopping the Eagles’ running game. The Rams knew the challenge of this after allowing 314 rushing yards — including a franchise-record 255 rushing yards by Barkley — in their Week 12 loss to Philadelphia. The Eagles’ first two touchdowns were rushes of 44 yards (Hurts) and 62 (Barkley) and Philadelphia finished with 285 yards on the ground. — Sarah Barshop
