December 23, 2024
Geoff Burke/Imagn Images
The Commanders were able to prioritize defending Saquon Barkley after Jalen Hurts went down on Sunday.
Sunday down in Landover was a different ballgame once Jalen Hurts had to be pulled with a concussion.
Saquon Barkley knew it. The Washington Commanders did, too.
The star running back had gone off for 109 yards and two touchdowns in the opening quarter, including a big 68-yard scoring run to send the Eagles out to a 21-7 lead.
But Hurts went down relatively early into the opening period, when officials and sideline spotters suspected symptoms after a hit while falling to the grass and pulled him aside.
Kenny Pickett came in as the backup quarterback, and stayed in. Hurts, as a dual-threat QB, wasn't there anymore to leave Washinton worrying about the constant threat of him taking off and running. So the Commanders just zeroed in on Barkley.
The dynamic of the Eagles' offense changed, and gradually, so did the momentum.
Barkley only had 41 yards from the second quarter onward, on 22 carries, and was suddenly running into walls much more frequently.
Washington clawed back to win, 36-33.
"They were kind of loading the box," Barkley said from Northwest Stadium's visiting locker room postgame. "We get it each week.
"The dynamic of Jalen definitely helps though. In our situation, a lot of the things that we do in our run game are designed with Jalen, so it's kind of hard to continue to run the same stuff when he's not in there. We had to adjust. They did a really good job. We just didn't make the plays that we needed to make."
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley had a harder time finding openings against the Commanders once Jalen Hurts went down.
Peter Casey/Imagn Images
Some of them they just couldn't anymore, or didn't seem to have the confidence in with Hurts not there.
Pickett went 14-for-24 passing for 143 yards, a touchdown, and a pick – both of which came when he went looking for top receiver A.J. Brown.
He had his good moments, and his bad, but the latter seemed to pile up more in the game's back half, when pressure was mounting and the Eagles really just needed to push the ball forward and burn clock.
They were still managing to a degree, and even still had a chance all the way up until late, but signature calls like the "Tush Push" weren't at the Eagles' disposal with Pickett as they were with Hurts. The consistency wasn't the same either, and the Commanders' defense braced itself for the failsafe of leaning on Barkley.
The Eagles were put in a spot where they were dared to throw, and that was ultimately a factor in their collapse.
But even so, they, again, still had a chance with Pickett in, and Barkley wanted to acknowledge that.
"Obviously, yes, losing Jalen definitely hurt us," Barkley said. "But I don't believe in moral victories, but definitely want to give a shoutout to Kenny. I think he did a really good job coming in, handling the situation, and putting us into a position to win a football game."
The Eagles just couldn't hold on, both to their own fault or misfortune (Hurts' concussion, C.J. Gardner-Johnson's ejection, an ill-timed DeVonta Smith drop, etc.) and to the Commanders' own credit (Jayden Daniels going on a second-half tear for the comeback).
It's what it is, Barkley and a few of his teammates echoed afterward.
"He's our starting quarterback," Barkley said of Hurts. "Everything that we do, and what he's able to do, it's the reason why we've been super successful.
"At the end of the day, Kenny came in and did a really good job. We just didn't get the job done. There's one play here, one play there. That's football. It'd be a whole different conversation."
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