With Philadelphia’s passing game in a rut and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts nursing a knee damage, the Washington Commanders will spend most of this week mapping out the best way to sluggish 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 the most effective sport plan, however it is not that straightforward.
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 bins.
“It is a numbers sport,” Barkley told reporters this week (h/t: Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com). “If you load the field, once you convey further individuals into the field, it is an attractive factor as a result of it is laborious to run, and also you gotta [have] hole self-discipline and run in the suitable gaps. It is laborious to run in opposition to — do not get me mistaken — however I really feel like myself as a again, being affected person and having that dwelling run pace, in case you load the field and we get by, there’s actually nobody again there.”
That state of affairs 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 midst of the sphere to assist if Barkley broke by the primary stage of defenders. Properly, that is precisely what he did, and security Kamren Curl stood no likelihood in a one-on-one duel with essentially the most dynamic operating again in soccer.
