When Saquon Barkley looked up at the replay of his latest long run for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night at SoFi Stadium, he noticed a graphic showing he had 173 yards rushing — just 16 yards shy of his career high.
“I said, ‘Aw, I wish I never saw that,’” Barkley said with a grin. “That’s just the devil talking, that’s how I look at it. … I’m a big believer that if it happens, it happens. Just let it come to you.”
Barkley decided to keep running for his teammates instead of focusing on records. A few carries later, he surpassed his personal best and added several new achievements with his second massive touchdown run in a historic game.
Barkley ran for touchdowns of 70 and 72 yards in the second half and ended with an Eagles record of 255 rushing yards in their 37-20 win, marking their seventh straight victory.
His 255 yards made him the ninth player in NFL history to rush for over 300 yards in a game. He achieved this largely thanks to his two long touchdown runs in the second half. He sprinted for a 70-yard touchdown on the first play of the third quarter and followed it up with another big run for a score with 2:44 left in the game.
“Saquon has that ability to hit home runs, and so sometimes that’s how it goes,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. “You get some short gain, short gain, short gain — boom, home run. Saquon is that type of player, and our offensive line did a good job of handling the variations of the front.”
Barkley finished the game with 302 total yards, making him the 12th player in NFL history to reach 300 yards, and the first Eagles player to do so. He also became the first NFL player since Maurice Jones-Drew in 2009 to have two 70-yard touchdowns in a single game.
Barkley now leads the league with a career-high 1,392 rushing yards, including seven 100-yard rushing games, the most in the league. It has been a standout first season with the Eagles after six challenging years with the New York Giants.
“To be honest, I’m not surprised,” said Barkley, a two-time Pro Bowl selection. “I didn’t know I would have this much success, (but) I’m thankful to be here. I’m thankful for the fresh start. A big reason why I wanted to come here is I felt like this is a spot where I could rewrite my story and show everyone the type of player that I feel like I can be and was meant to be, and it’s working out right now.”
Barkley averaged 9.8 yards per carry and set new franchise records for rushing yards, breaking LeSean McCoy’s 217 yards from 2013 and Duce Staley’s 296 total yards from 2000. He also had the best rushing performance against the Rams, surpassing DeMarco Murray’s 253-yard game for Dallas in 2011.
A.J. Brown caught six passes for 109 yards and a touchdown from Jalen Hurts, who threw for 179 yards as the NFC East-leading Eagles (9-2) scored 24 points in the second half to pull away.
Kyren Williams scored a touchdown, and Demarcus Robinson caught a TD pass for the Rams (5-6), who lost their second consecutive home game.
Matthew Stafford passed for 243 yards but was sacked five times by Philadelphia’s top-ranked defense. Los Angeles couldn’t keep up with the Eagles, who are Super Bowl contenders, in the second half, marking only their second loss in six games. Puka Nacua caught nine passes for 117 yards, and Cooper Kupp added a 27-yard touchdown catch with 1:07 left.
The Rams’ defense allowed 480 yards, undoing much of the improvement the unit had shown in recent weeks.
“(Barkley) is getting tough, hard-earned yards, and then you give him a vertical seam like he got a couple of times,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “He has the explosiveness and long speed and the ability to finish. That is what opened and blew the game up for him. He was outstanding.”
The Eagles improved to 4-0 against the Rams in Los Angeles since the Rams moved back to the city. Despite dominating the second quarter, the Eagles only led 13-7 at halftime.
Barkley had only 73 yards in the first half, but he broke the game open with a skillful run right up the middle to start the third quarter.
“He makes a cut that I didn’t think anybody else could make,” Sirianni said. “Like, he just stopped on a dime.”
The Rams responded with Robinson’s short touchdown catch, but Kenneth Gainwell answered with a 13-yard touchdown run shortly after, one play after Barkley’s 31-yard catch-and-run on third down.
In the final minutes, Barkley found another huge hole in the Rams’ defense.
“One of our guys got out of the gap backside,” Rams nose tackle Kobie Turner said. “Once you give that guy space to run and now he’s up on the second level, he can make guys miss and has the speed to break away.”
