Today's games

[TDToomer]

They have to old the Eagles to a FG to keep this a game.

[killarich]

That's such a bogus call

Come on Barkley was barely out of bounds

[TDToomer]

That's such a bogus call

Come on Barkley was barely out of bounds

He was way out of bounds. If it was Tracy we would be screaming at the refs to call it.

[Ed Vette]

Barkley excels at the second level. The Eagles have opened up opportunities for him that he never had here in years. He has been better at protecting his body. It doesn't end well when you leave your feet. I don't see him in decline. He's been clocked at over 20mph this season.

His last season in 2023 he was a product of the team sad sack umbrella. He dropped passes, in key situations. He seemed to gain more yards in 2022 off first contact than in 2023. The interesting stat is the Eagles rushed him about 100 times more than the Giants did. Success feeds off each other.

I don't think it was intentional but the energy wasn't there in 2023 like it's been for him this season. When you hold back on effort in this league you get hurt. That said, I agree that a second contract for a RB on a team that's incomplete without a QB is not a great investment. In this case however Schoen should have invested in him instead of Jones. His leadership was conspicuously missing and he was the best player on the team. With his injury history, I understand why he didn't.

[Trench]

Barkley excels at the second level. The Eagles have opened up opportunities for him that he never had here in years. He has been better at protecting his body. It doesn't end well when you leave your feet. I don't see him in decline. He's been clocked at over 20mph this season.

His last season in 2023 he was a product of the team sad sack umbrella. He dropped passes, in key situations. He seemed to gain more yards in 2022 off first contact than in 2023. The interesting stat is the Eagles rushed him about 100 times more than the Giants did. Success feeds off each other.

I don't think it was intentional but the energy wasn't there in 2023 like it's been for him this season. When you hold back on effort in this league you get hurt. That said, I agree that a second contract for a RB on a team that's incomplete without a QB is not a great investment. In this case however Schoen should have invested in him instead of Jones. His leadership was conspicuously missing and he was the best player on the team. With his injury history, I understand why he didn't.

Ed - great post!!!!

Respectfully, I would use your post as evidence to support my firm belief Daboll takes players out TOO frequently the moment after a big play. The Eagles feed the hot hand. It's smart. It's basic sports - confidence and rythym matters. This will forever be something which frustrates me with Daboll philosophy

[PSUBeirut]

I think you're a little too emotionally invested in saquan. He ran for 900 yards last year, his advanced stats were trash the past two years, plus with multiple season ending injuries, he is in decline. 2 things can be right at the same time, he can be both declining and in the perfect situation to thrive short term. No team has ever won a super bowl with an expensive back, no one has ever paid a rb on a 2nd deal and been happy at the end of it. All rbs hit a wall at Barkleys age, so while you can be an ardent defender of Barkley, it was the right call, and him having pro bowl players at every position on offense may have something to do with his success. That and he's still the boom or bust running back he's always been. So if you take the emotion out if it, logically it was the right call by the Giants and he is in decline but I guess we'll have to see if he's the 1st rb ever to finish a high dollar 2nd contract.

I'm not sure about emotionally invested, but yes I've been a huge fan of Barkley from the start- a big part of the pain of this season for me is watching what SHOULD have been with the Giants.  I've watched him since he was a freshman at PSU, so no offense but when I saw all of your posts in the past about how he was washed up, wouldn't get the kind of $$$ he was looking for, etc.- I knew you were wrong.  I knew whatever "advanced metrics" you were using to justify your opinions were simply useless in Saquon's case.  The way this season has played out, it's obvious you were wrong.  The guy is a special athlete and by the end of his contract will be 29 (not the start of the contract...the end).  By the way, if you'd like to check out just how reasonable his contract is, based on performance- be my guest:  https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/25097/saquon-barkley  (1.5% of cap this year, 2.4% next year, and a whopping 3.3% in year 3- with no years of more than $10 million hit).  The Eagles are laughing all the way to the bank.

And I've said all along that this past offseason it was the right move for the Giants not to sign him because he'd still be languishing in this sadly trash organization.  Where the Giants screwed the pooch, obviously, was not giving in by literally a few million bucks on the long-term contract he wanted and tagging DJ instead of Barkley.  I truly don't see how any rational person at this point could not point to this as a huge mistake (signing DJ and tagging Barkley instead of the other way around). 

But, I digress.  I just found it interesting that despite watching, in real-time, Saquon do MVP-caliber things while likely now leading his new team to a Super Bowl that you're still taking the time to denigrate the dude who did everything in his power while he was here to help his team win.  Last thing I'll say is- maybe take your advanced metrics with a large grain of salt next time and also accept the fact that sometimes we make calls and they're wrong. 

[Ed Vette]

Ed - great post!!!!

Respectfully, I would use your post as evidence to support my firm belief Daboll takes players out TOO frequently the moment after a big play. The Eagles feed the hot hand. It's smart. It's basic sports - confidence and rythym matters. This will forever be something which frustrates me with Daboll philosophy

That's a great point.

[EDjohnst1981]

Barkley excels at the second level. The Eagles have opened up opportunities for him that he never had here in years. He has been better at protecting his body. It doesn't end well when you leave your feet. I don't see him in decline. He's been clocked at over 20mph this season.

His last season in 2023 he was a product of the team sad sack umbrella. He dropped passes, in key situations. He seemed to gain more yards in 2022 off first contact than in 2023. The interesting stat is the Eagles rushed him about 100 times more than the Giants did. Success feeds off each other.

I don't think it was intentional but the energy wasn't there in 2023 like it's been for him this season. When you hold back on effort in this league you get hurt. That said, I agree that a second contract for a RB on a team that's incomplete without a QB is not a great investment. In this case however Schoen should have invested in him instead of Jones. His leadership was conspicuously missing and he was the best player on the team. With his injury history, I understand why he didn't.

Agree with every word of this, especially around the absence of leadership. Barkley was the offence, was the leadership.

Still, after the signing of Jones, it was hard to give the money to Barkley. But ultimately, what were they - 1mil apart. If both wanted to be here, they could have worked that out.

I guess Roseman is more than happy paying a QB 40 odd million to hand the ball off.

[uconnjack8]

Coming into today the remaining 4 teams hadn't turned the ball over in the playoffs.  The one that turns it over today is down.

Will add rhe the boom or bust thing has been incorrect on Barkley this year.  He has a lot of 2,3 and 4 yard runs and very few negative or no yards. 

The Rams game last week is one of the few that was the case.  The prior game was  4 yards and a cloud of dust without any "boom" plays. 

[LennG]

Dancing, down 3 TDs.

This is the thing I hate the most about football today.

[Philosophers]

I think you're a little too emotionally invested in saquan. He ran for 900 yards last year, his advanced stats were trash the past two years, plus with multiple season ending injuries, he is in decline. 2 things can be right at the same time, he can be both declining and in the perfect situation to thrive short term. No team has ever won a super bowl with an expensive back, no one has ever paid a rb on a 2nd deal and been happy at the end of it. All rbs hit a wall at Barkleys age, so while you can be an ardent defender of Barkley, it was the right call, and him having pro bowl players at every position on offense may have something to do with his success. That and he's still the boom or bust running back he's always been. So if you take the emotion out if it, logically it was the right call by the Giants and he is in decline but I guess we'll have to see if he's the 1st rb ever to finish a high dollar 2nd contract.

Fans should not lean into "stats" without context.  For example, maybe the Eagles WRs are ferocious blockers whereas the Giants WRs are terrible so Barkley has trouble busting runs outside or downfield.

I see an Eagles team in which each player is doing his job at a high level.  I just saw Barkley block out a DT on the Hurts TD.  How well a block would Tracy have done on a losing team?

[Ed Vette]

Like it or not, this Eagles team is very good. So is the organization. Their fans, not so much.

[Woody]

Barkley has finally learned how to block in the pocket


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[Trench]

I'd like to see this tush push banned

[uconnjack8]

Fangio has a done a really good job over the course of the season.  Defense has improved a lot since the beginning of the year.