With Philadelphia’s passing game in a rut and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts nursing a knee injury, the Washington Commanders will spend most of this week mapping out how to slow RB Saquon Barkley in the NFC Championship Game. Loading the box Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Fox) and forcing Hurts to beat them passing might sound like the best game plan, but it isn’t that simple.
There’s a reason Barkley has scampered for 324 yards and two touchdowns in two playoff games despite the passing game sputtering. Defenses are sending extra bodies to the line of scrimmage to try to contain Barkley before he gets to full speed, but that’s only leaving them more vulnerable to the game-breaking play.
Ahead of the NFC title game, Barkley detailed why the Eagles are so successful against stacked boxes.
“It’s a numbers game,” Barkley told reporters this week (h/t: Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com). “When you load the box, when you bring extra people into the box, it’s a beautiful thing because it’s hard to run, and you gotta [have] gap discipline and run in the right gaps. It’s hard to run against — don’t get me wrong — but I feel like myself as a back, being patient and having that home run speed, if you load the box and we get through, there’s really no one back there.”
That scenario played out late during Philadelphia’s divisional-round win against the Los Angeles Rams. With less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Rams lined up with five defensive linemen and three linebackers tight to the line of scrimmage. There was only one safety in the middle of the field to help if Barkley broke through the first level of defenders. Well, that’s exactly what he did, and safety Kamren Curl stood no chance in a one-on-one duel with the most dynamic running back in football.
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