Philadelphia Eagles News

Home

Quizzes

Watch

Newsletter

Nov 23, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) runs with the ball in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Eagles Rushing Star Admits To Being In A Funk

Originally posted on Philadelphia Eagles on SI
By Ed Kracz | Last updated Nov 23, 2025 10:09 PM ET

The excuses keep piling up for the Eagles’ inability to run the ball. In Sunday’s 24-21 collapse in Dallas, it was because the Cowboys played five-man fronts. Whatever defenses have done against the Eagles to shut down Saquon Barkley has worked.

By now, you would think Nick Sirianni and his offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo would have figured something out by now. Nope.

“We gotta get the run game going,” said Barkley, who had just 10 carries for 22 yards in the Eagles’ third loss of the season. "Just not gaining yards, and I’m tired of the excuse of people trying to stop the run game. I don’t subscribe to that. Just have to be better and make plays.”

And maybe not abandon the run game like they did against the Cowboys. Heck, the Eagles only dialed up 18 runs all night. One of them went to Tank Bigsby, who ran hard, like he always does, and got eight years. Barkley’s longest was seven.

Bigsby is averaging nearly eight yards on his 22 carries this season. Perhaps he needs to get it more, because think what you want about whatever the excuse of the day is, Barkley isn’t the same runner he was last year. And that was to be expected. The eight other running backs who put up over 2,000 yards rushing returned the following year and weren’t the same, for whatever reason.

Can Saquon Barkley Escape The Funk He's In?

“I’m a big believer that the run game starts with me, ends with me,” he said to reporters in Dallas. “I’m in a little funk right now. I’ve had funks like this before. I just gotta break it, and the only way I know how is by flushing this, work my butt off, and get ready for my next opportunity.”

He doesn't think he's trying too hard, but wanted to look at the film to see if maybe that was the case against the Cowboys.

"I truly don’t feel I’m doing that," he said. "I’m doing my best to trust it, and the plays aren’t happening, and that’s hard on me. I have to make the plays."

In eight of Barkley’s 11 games this season he has run for less than 60 yards. That’s an absurd number compared to a season ago, when he had 11 games of at least 100 yards rushing. This year, he has one.

“I’m not playing well,” he said. “I gotta play better. That’s really it.”

Barkley, who said he is healthy, also lost his first fumble of the season midway through the fourth quarter with the game knotted at 21-21 and the Eagles inside the Dallas 40. Field goal range at minimum, except he was hit from behind and lost the ball.

“I lost us point us there,” he said. “I have to be better with my ball security. Stuff like that kept popping up. I couldn’t get the run game going. …I just didn’t play good. I didn’t play even close to good, to be honest

“Ball security takes no talent. I work my ass off on that. In my career, I’ve been really good at taking care of the ball and I just let the team down in that moment. It’s gonna sting, but being in this profession, you’re going to make plays and you’re going to have mistakes. You just gotta respond, go back to the drawing board. We have a short week and you work for the team.”

That next opportunity will come on a short week when the Chicago Bears visit Lincoln Financial Field for a Black Friday matchup.

“I kind of know how (we’re) going to respond,” he said. “I know the team that we have. It’s not our first time losing. …I feel like the team that we have is gonna respond.”

This article first appeared on Philadelphia Eagles on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: