Behind Saquon Barkley’s 255 rushing yards, the Philadelphia Eagles improve to 9-2 by grinding down the Rams 37-20 on NBC’s ‘Sunday Night Football.’
“He’s a hell of a player,” Eagles QB Jalen Hurts said of Barkley postgame. “He’s the best at what he does.”
The Rams drop to 5-6 after being outscored 24-13 in the second half.
Matthew Stafford isn’t perfect. As recently as Week 10 of this season, he had thrown an interception in six consecutive games, which tied for the longest such streak of his 16-year career. The upshot is that when Stafford is at his best with his receivers, Los Angeles is tough to beat. In fact, 3-0 when he has thrown multiple touchdown passes.
With their ground game struggling, the Rams have to protect quarterback Matthew Stafford to have any chance of winning. And they’ve done that: Coming off a win in New England where they allowed zero sacks, the Rams have allowed only 21 sacks and 117 pressures, both of which are top-10 marks.
But those linemen will, quite literally, have their hands full against an Eagles defense whose 28 sacks rank ninth-best in the league. Linebacker Josh Sweat leads with six sacks, but watch Jalen Carter (3.5 sacks) in particular tonight.
Philadelphia has run all over its opponents this season, averaging a league-high 181.3 yards on the ground between Saquon Barkley, who leads the league in scrimmage yards, and quarterback Jalen Hurts. If Philadelphia rushes for at least 150 yards and multiple rushing touchdowns tonight, it will become only the second team in NFL history to do that for six consecutive games – joining the Eagles from 1949, according to NBC research.
The Rams? Well, they have mostly run into trouble on the ground, averaging 95.4 yards per game and 3.8 yards per rush, the league’s third-worst average. It’s not for lack of trying; Kyren Williams, the Rams’ lead back, is rushing 19.1 attempts per game, fourth-most among backs in the league. Yet he hasn’t scored a rushing touchdown in the last five games. It would be an upset if the Rams had a breakthrough against the Eagles and their seventh-ranked rushing defense.
Through the season’s first month, neither the Eagles nor the Rams were ready for prime time.
Philadelphia started 2-2, sparking hot-seat pressure on coach Nick Sirianni. Los Angeles, meanwhile, was just 1-4 as recently as Oct. 19, after their bye week – their worst start to a season since 2014. For all the consternation those poor starts created, both teams have since authored two of the biggest turnarounds in the entire league, with Philadelphia riding a six-game winning streak that is the NFL’s second-longest active streak.
Since that streak began in Week 6, the Eagles own the NFL’s best scoring defense, allowing just 13.8 points per game.
Meanwhile, the Rams have won four of their last five games. Much of credit goes to the play-calling – and the returns to the lineup of receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp – that has unlocked Matthew Stafford, who has thrown 10 touchdowns in his last four games against three turnovers. Contrast that with his production from his first six games: three touchdowns and six turnovers.
Since Nick Sirianni’s first season in 2021, the Eagles have won 42 games in the regular season, the most in the NFC. It’s a remarkable run on its face, including the fact that should the Eagles make the postseason as expected, it would be the first time since 2000-04, under Andy Reid, that the franchise had made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons. Yet for the Eagles’ fan base, what matters is what happens in the playoffs.
Sirianni is 2-3, and after last season’s collapse to end the year, there remains significant pressure to ensure this season’s winning streak translates to the playoffs.
