In Roob’s Observations: The Saquon show continues as Eagles take down Rams originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Saquon Barkley is a god.
Howie Roseman is a genius.
The Giants are morons.
That could be the entire 10 Observations off this game.
The 1st-place Eagles made it seven wins in a row Sunday night with a 37-20 win over the Rams Sunday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
They’re now 9-2, tied with the Bills and Vikings for the 3rd-best record in the NFL, behind the 10-1 Chiefs and 10-1 Lions. They haven’t lost since September.
This is a great team that keeps getting better. Watch out, Lions.
1. Let’s have a conversation about Saquon Barkley. I’m out of adjectives to describe what he’s doing. Completely bat-bleep preposterous. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, he opens the third quarter of a one-possession game with a 70-yard touchdown run and then follows that with a 72-yarder to put the game away in the fourth quarter. Barkley is the sixth player in NFL history with two 70-yard touchdown runs in the same game. He was astonishing Sunday night. He finished with a franchise-record 255 rushing yards – and 302 scrimmage yards — 9th-most in NFL history. Wilbert Montgomery was incredible when he was healthy. Brian Westbrook was amazing. LeSean McCoy may be a Hall of Famer. But I’ve never seen anything like what Barkley is doing. He isn’t just having one of the best seasons ever by an Eagles running back, he’s having one of the best seasons ever by any running back. He’s now up to a career-high 1,392 rushing yards … with six games to go. His career high was 1,312 two years ago with the Giants. If people aren’t considering him as a serious MVP candidate because he’s not a quarterback, they’re clueless. He’s the best player I’ve ever seen, dangit.
2. This defense is just absurd. Absurd. Probably won’t get the attention they deserve because of No. 26, but they just shut down this high-flying Rams offense, holding them to 14 points, 222 yards and 4.4 yards per play before their last-minute meaningless drive. They are playing at such an astounding level right now, strong in every phase. Coverage. Pressure. Tackling. Playing so well together. There is no weak link in this group. Nobody opposing teams can pick on or go after. They are just sound at every level and it’s easy to forget this group as currently constructed has been together for all of seven games, since Cooper DeJean replaced Avonte Maddox. This wasn’t the Browns or Jaguars or Cowboys or Commanders or Giants. This is a very potent Rams offense led by a possible Hall of Fame quarterback with two elite receivers. They netted 123 yards and seven points on their first two drives and then 122 yards and seven points on their next seven drives. By then the Eagles were up 23 points and the game was over. Vic Fangio has worked a miracle this year, taking a bunch of new guys and a few holdovers from the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense and turning them into the best defense in football. Incredible.
3. That was some truly next-level stuff from Cooper DeJean, who spent most of the evening glued to Cooper Kupp, who’s only one of the top slot receivers in the NFL, a guy who once had close to 2,000 yards in a season, who has averaged 77 yards per game in his career. DeJean has been unreal since Vic Fangio inserted him into the starting lineup after the bye, and he’s shut down some really good receivers, but Cooper Kupp is in another league, and on the snaps that DeJean was covering Kupp the Rams veteran just couldn’t get anything going. It’s so much fun watching this kid. How about this: The Eagles haven’t lost since he joined the starting lineup.
4. I didn’t think this was a particular sharp game for Jalen Hurts, especially early. He took a couple sacks he shouldn’t have taken and misfired a few times when he had guys open. Made some bad decisions in the pocket. But once again what he did do was manage a game where the Eagles were run heavy with enough big throws to keep a defense honest, and he did it playing mistake-free football. Without DeVonta Smith, he focused on A.J. Brown, who once again came up huge. Hurts was 15-for-22 for 179 yards with one TD and no interceptions and a 108.0 passer rating. He’s got 10 touchdown passes, 10 rushing touchdowns and one interception in his last eight games. The numbers haven’t been gaudy, but when you’re running the ball like this, they don’t need to be. Hurts is doing exactly what his team needs him to do. You better believe he’s a big reason this team keeps winning.
5. Matt Stafford isn’t the easiest guy to sack, because he gets rid of the ball so fast. He had been sacked only 21 times out of 370 drop-backs coming into the game – that’s 5.7 percent of drop-backs, and that was 5th-best in the NFL. He hadn’t been sacked at all in three of his last four games. But the Eagles found ways to get a lot of pressure on him, especially after the Rams’ first two drives. Milton Williams had two huge sacks and Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and Nakobe Dean had one each. That’s five sacks against a quarterback who’d been sacked four times in his last five games. The Eagles also had 11 quarterback hits, including three each from Williams and B.G. That’s continuing an encouraging trend that’s seen the Eagles’ pass rush finally get going after a sluggish start. The Eagles had six sacks in four games before the bye, but they have 27 in the last seven games and the combination of outstanding coverage in the secondary with steady pass pressure is a tough one to beat. Even for a high-octane passer like Stafford.
6. Without DeVonta Smith, you figured the Eagles needed a weapon or two in the passing game other than A.J. Brown and Dallas Goedert. And Saquon Barkley had a nice evening in the passing game, where he’s being utilized more and more, but for the most part Jalen Hurts just focused on Brown, who seemed to be open on every play. Brown caught six of seven targets for 109 yards, including catches of 28, 27, 19 and 17 yards and that six-yard TD that was initially ruled an incomplete pass. Barkley has been so remarkable it’s easy to forget that Brown is one of the best wide receivers in the game, and he showed why Sunday night, catching everything and picking up tough, physical yards after the catch. Brown is a beast.
7. News that Brandon Graham is out for the year with a torn triceps is just crushing, not just because he’s one of the best people you’ll ever meet but because he’s playing at an insanely high level for anybody, much less a 36-year-old in his 15th season. If this is B.G.’s final game, it was a doozy – a sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and a pass breakup. “I don’t want to go out like this, but if that ain’t in the cards I’m content with where I am, too,” B.G. said in the locker room. “But I’m not there yet. Let’s see how rehab goes and we’ll go from there.” The Eagles will really miss B.G. not just for his leadership and personality and energy but because he’s playing at an extremely high level. B.G.’s sack gave him 76 ½ career sacks and moved him past the great Clyde Simmons and into 3rd place in Eagles history. If B.G. wants to play another year, I’m sure not going to try to talk him out of it.
8. With B.G. out for the year and Bryce Huff on IR for at least another three weeks, the Eagles are suddenly very thin at edge rusher. Not that Huff was doing a whole lot before he underwent wrist surgery. Josh Sweat and Nolan Smith have been very good, but it’s a position where the Eagles don’t have a lot of depth. Rookie Jalyx Hunt has shown some promise, but he’s raw and very inexperienced. One guy who could get a promotion is practice squadder Tarron Jackson, who was originally an Eagles 6th-round pick in 2021 and played in 21 games for the Eagles in 2021 and 2022. Jackson ran Jared Verse on the scout team this past week, and his teammates were raving about him. I’d expect him to be the next man up.
9. Let’s talk about the running game. If you include Jalen Hurts’ 39 rushing yards and Kenny Gainwell’s 22, the Eagles had 314 rushing yards on 45 carries. These are insane numbers. Here’s one that’s even more insane: The Eagles have 2,127 rushing yards, a 5.2 average and 22 rushing touchdowns. The last team to put up those numbers through 11 games? How about those 1958 Cleveland Browns. Yeah, that was 66 years ago. We’re seeing the greatest running attack the NFL has seen in more than half a century.
10. It was cool to see on a night Nakobe Dean all over the field on one of those rare nights where Zack Baun didn’t make a bunch of splash plays. Dean has been overshadowed a little because Baun has been so incredible this year, the Eagles’ defensive MVP so far. But Dean has been terrific as well and it’s amazing to think where he is now when he was running with the second team throughout training camp – behind Baun and Devin White. Dean had eight tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, a quarterback hit and a fumble recovery and in his first season as a starter he’s now got an interception, three sacks, nine tackles for loss and two fumble recoveries. I give the Eagles a ton of credit for sticking with Dean when he was buried deep on the bench as a rookie and got hurt last year. It was easy to wonder if the former 3rd-round pick would ever become a viable starter, but Dean has been so good. Just always around the ball. Active. Physical. Sound tackler. And he’s only 23. He’s going to be a very good player for this team for a long time.
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