Eagles Focus On Springing Saquon Barkley Vs. Chiefs

“That’s the beauty of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles,” said Barkley. “We have so much talent. If you take away one thing, we have the opportunity to hurt you in another. That’s just the mindset. Whatever it takes to win football games, whether they stack the box or they don’t. But if you don’t stack the box, I’ll make you pay for it. That’s how I feel.”

It’s not like anything is broken, at this point. The Eagles scored touchdowns on their first three possessions against the Cowboys and points on their first four, and the run game put up 158 yards, which is respectable, but last year’s per game rushing average was 190 yards.

In the Super Bowl, they whacked KC 40-22, despite Barkley’s ineffectiveness. There was a parade and nobody thought twice about KC taking the Eagles’ star running back out of the game.

Here’s something else: The Super Bowl was the only time Barkley did not lead the team in rushing in a game in all of 2024, with the exception being Week 18 against the Giants when Barkley did not play. Other than that game, Barkley led them in rushing in 16 games and three playoff games.

Already, in Week 1, it was Hurts who had to lead the way on the ground. That has to change, and it most certainly will.

“If you watch the tape, you can see it on the film and Ieading into this, we look at execution,” said Mailata. “So, that's a major emphasis this week, and that starts with communication and trying to simplify that, especially on the road at Arrowhead. It's gonna be really tough to be able to communicate, so simplifying and making sure that we break the huddle and our operation is clean. So that was a big thing this week.”