September 07, 2024
The Eagles' offense looked like a mess to start Friday night down in São Paulo.
A slippery field, two plays that went nowhere with the team pinned back deep, and then an underthrow of an interception from Jalen Hurts on a broken third-down call capped the season's first possession. Then a miscommunication, a resulting early snap from center Cam Jurgens, and a fumble charged to Hurts that was recovered by the Packers cursed the second.
It wasn't looking good early, and had it not been for the defense holding Green Bay to just two field goals in the first quarter, the whole trip to Brazil could've gone south quickly.
But then the Eagles got the ball a third time, they finally settled into some kind of rhythm, and their biggest signing of the offseason made his mark.
After pushing down to the Green Bay 18, play action on the snap sent Saquon Barkley on a wheel route straight to the end zone. Hurts lofted it to him with two defenders closing in at the goal line. Barkley leaped up to grab the ball just past the left pylon and got pulled down with both feet in bounds.
Touchdown, the first Eagles lead of the night, a sign of life from the offense, and the exclamation point from the unit's newest weapon in his debut.
And he had a lot more to do in what stood, in the end, as a 34-29 win for the Birds.
HURTS TO SAQUON FOR THE @EAGLES FIRST TD!
— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2024
📺: #GBvsPHI on Peacock pic.twitter.com/WeEql9w1Ed
"It was like 'Oh my gosh, what a play by a running back,' making that catch and getting his feet in," tight end Dallas Goedert told NBC10's John Clark from the Eagles' locker room in Corinthians Arena postgame.
"I don't know if he saw me on that catch, and then the other touchdown, but I was haulin' ass up there to go say hi to him." right tackle Lane Johnson added with a laugh.
"I mean, glad he's on our team, that's for sure," Goedert chimed at another point.
And afterward, Barkley said himself that he's happy to be here – well, "here" in that playing a game in Brazil was cool and "here" in having signed with the Eagles over the offseason.
By the end of the night, the Eagles' newest running back had scored two more times – both on the ground – and rushed for 109 yards on 24 carries. He had two receptions for 23 yards as well, which included that first touchdown catch.
Hurts and the Eagles' offense had their moments against the Packers, though Friday night definitely wasn't always pretty. But by far, Barkley, in his Eagles debut, was the game's biggest star.
"You gotta give credit to the offensive line," Barkley said from the podium postgame. "It starts with the offensive line and Jalen making the right reads to put us in the right positions. The O-line is setting me up, making me look better than I actually am, and it doesn't hurt to have Dallas Goedert, A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith, you know?
"On the scouting report I'm probably not even in the top 3 you gotta worry about, so it makes my job a lot easier, and [offensive coordinator Kellen Moore] does a really good job to put us in a position to be special. I'm just happy to be here and start it off right."
While fans and even players got that first glimpse of an offense they've been dreaming about all summer.
"He opens up a lot," receiver DeVonta Smith, who made some crucial catches late, said of Barkley. "He gets a lot of teams out of the two-high stuff because you have to come down in the box and have to account for him, so it helps a lot, but it helps even more when the pass and the run game is working real well."
"Yeah," Smith continued on if the offense was what he envisioned. "Minus all the turnovers and sloppiness we had, but yeah."
Hopefully, that last part gets sorted out in time.
Barkley played 61 snaps in total on Friday night and quickly became the biggest offensive threat the Eagles could throw at Green Bay.
Late in the first half and back within the red zone, Barkley made a quick cut off the handoff that froze a blitzer in place, then took off straight through an opening on the right to score again and put the Eagles back on top, 14-12.
Saquon Freaking Barkley#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/ZdXg8tLqB0
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 7, 2024
Then, in the third quarter and within goal-to-go range after Reed Blankenship's pivotal interception of Jordan Love, Barkley took another handoff and powered through the line to break the plane, completing a hat trick and, once again, putting the Eagles back in the lead, 31-26.
Saquon Barkley Hat Trick.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 7, 2024
we repeat....
SAQUON BARKLEY HAT TRICK 🎩 pic.twitter.com/LiVM0PHCIV
Friday night with Week 1 was just the star free agent signing's turn, granted, with a few things to come back and iron out.
"Like I said to you guys the whole offseason, the whole camp, there's gonna be games where there's opportunity for me to go out there and take over, and there's gonna be games for A.J., DeVonta and so on [to take over]," Barkley said. "I think Kellen does a really good job of having a feel for the game and a feel for the players. Still, I feel like I left a lot out there and can't wait to get back and watch the film and see what I can improve on. It's a great start. At the end of the day, the most important thing is to win football games, and that's hard to do in this league, especially against a great [Green Bay] team like that."
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