With Philadelphia’s passing game in a rut and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts nursing a knee harm, the Washington Commanders will spend most of this week mapping out the right way to gradual RB Saquon Barkley within the NFC Championship Sport. Loading the field Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Fox) and forcing Hurts to beat them passing may sound like one of the best sport plan, but it surely is not that easy.
There is a cause Barkley has scampered for 324 yards and two touchdowns in two playoff video games regardless of the passing sport sputtering. Defenses are sending further our bodies to the road of scrimmage to attempt to include Barkley earlier than he will get to full pace, however that is solely leaving them extra weak to the game-breaking play.
Forward of the NFC title sport, Barkley detailed why the Eagles are so profitable in opposition to stacked packing containers.
“It is a numbers sport,” Barkley told reporters this week (h/t: Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com). “Whenever you load the field, while you deliver further individuals into the field, it is a good looking factor as a result of it is onerous to run, and also you gotta [have] hole self-discipline and run in the precise gaps. It is onerous to run in opposition to — do not get me fallacious — however I really feel like myself as a again, being affected person and having that dwelling run pace, when you load the field and we get by way of, there’s actually nobody again there.”
That situation performed out late throughout Philadelphia’s divisional-round win in opposition to the Los Angeles Rams. With lower than 5 minutes left within the fourth quarter, the Rams lined up with 5 defensive linemen and three linebackers tight to the road of scrimmage. There was just one security in the course of the sector to assist if Barkley broke by way of the primary stage of defenders. Effectively, that is precisely what he did, and security Kamren Curl stood no likelihood in a one-on-one duel with probably the most dynamic working again in soccer.
