The Eagles could have gotten away with a questionable play call with the game on the line and the Falcons out of time outs if running back Saquon Barkley had caught the ball. He didn’t.
After the game, he owned it.
“I dropped the ball,” Barkley told reporters. “Let my team down today. Shouldn’t have put the defense in that position. If I make the catch, game’s over. Relax, get back to my old habits. and Just gotta go back and get to work.”
Did he have any concern about the decision to throw the ball in that spot?
“No, once I knew it, I thought it was a great play call,” Barkley said. “I just gotta make that catch.”
Kudos to Barkley for taking the blame. But the possibility of a drop had to be considered in the analysis that led to calling for a pass. It was third and three. They could have run the ball — twice.
As Scott Van Pelt suggested during the ESPN post-game show, the Eagles could have run the “tush push” twice, taking a huge chunk of time off the clock if they hadn’t gotten the three yards on the first try and giving the Falcons the ball inside their own 10 and needing a field goal to force overtime.
It’s easy to understand why Sirianni got a little cocky. It felt like everything was going their way. The game seemed over, to everyone. In the end, the Eagles didn’t do what they had to do to make it over.
And then it was over. With the most unlikely reversal through 32 games of the 2024 regular season.
Last year, the Eagles started 10-1. They’re now 1-1, with trips to New Orleans and Tampa Bay before a very early bye.
Win the next two, and this one might be forgotten. Lose one or both, and the Eagles will have a mess much earlier than the mess arrived in 2023.