With Philadelphia’s passing game in a rut and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts nursing a knee harm, the Washington Commanders will spend most of this week mapping out find out how to sluggish RB Saquon Barkley within the NFC Championship Recreation. Loading the field Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Fox) and forcing Hurts to beat them passing would possibly sound like the most effective sport plan, nevertheless it is not that easy.
There is a purpose Barkley has scampered for 324 yards and two touchdowns in two playoff video games regardless of the passing sport sputtering. Defenses are sending additional our bodies to the road of scrimmage to attempt to comprise 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 containers.
“It is a numbers sport,” Barkley told reporters this week (h/t: Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com). “Once you load the field, once you deliver additional folks into the field, it is a lovely factor as a result of it is laborious to run, and also you gotta [have] hole self-discipline and run in the best gaps. It is laborious to run in opposition to — do not get me flawed — however I really feel like myself as a again, being affected person and having that house run pace, for those who load the field and we get by way of, there’s actually nobody again there.”
That situation 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 course of the sector to assist if Barkley broke by way of the primary stage of defenders. Effectively, that is precisely what he did, and security Kamren Curl stood no probability in a one-on-one duel with probably the most dynamic operating again in soccer.
