Eagles’ running game will need to make adjustments if Jalen Hurts is sidelined vs. Dallas
Barkley ran for just 27 yards on 16 carries in the second half Sunday with Hurts out of the game.
Washington wasn’t the first team to try to erase Saquon Barkley’s impact on a game, and it won’t be the last.
During Barkley’s historic debut season with the Eagles, the team’s opponents have tried a lot of different things to slow down the running game, right tackle Lane Johnson said Thursday. Opponents have, for example, disguised packages by moving players in and out of the box late in an effort to throw off combination blocks and protection calls.
A concerted effort to stop Barkley has rarely worked the way it did during the second half of Sunday’s 36-33 Eagles loss to the Commanders.
The bulk of the explanation as to what went wrong in the second half when Barkley rushed 16 times for 27 yards is in who was handing the ball to him and who wasn’t. The Eagles, it goes without saying, are a different team with Kenny Pickett in for Jalen Hurts. That was especially apparent Sunday, when the Eagles had to make on-the-fly adjustments after Hurts was concussed on the team’s second drive of the game.
“You can game plan all you want, but stuff happens in the game and you got to be able to adjust now, and we didn’t adjust like we needed to,” Johnson said. “All things considered, I’d rather something like that happen now than maybe in the playoffs.”
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If Pickett is to start Sunday — and it’s certainly trending that way — the Eagles will be in a different spot than they were in Washington, with a whole week of game preparation leading into their Week 17 tilt vs. visiting Dallas. Pickett hadn’t taken many reps with the first-team offense until this week. The offensive line will have a better understanding of his cadence. Barkley will take more handoffs from his hands. The receivers will try to get their timing down.
“We have a great game plan,” Barkley said. “Now we just got to go out there and execute it and be ready for whatever Dallas throws at us.”
The Cowboys are bringing an improved defense with them to Philadelphia from when the teams played in Dallas on Nov. 10. They are no longer in playoff contention but have won four of five and have done a good job stopping the run in the process. Dallas is the sixth-worst run defense by average yards allowed per game (135.9), but that number is a little bit misleading, especially given some recent results.
Baker Mayfield scrambled three times for 42 yards vs. the Cowboys last week. Take out Bucky Irving’s 15-yard gain, and the Tampa Bay running back averaged just 3½ yards on his other 15 carries. The week before, Carolina running back Chuba Hubbard rushed 10 times for 32 yards, which was one week after Cincinnati Bengals back Chase Brown needed 14 carries to amass 58 yards. New York Giants quarterback Drew Lock hurt Dallas on a few runs, but Giants runners otherwise went for 59 yards on 17 carries. Similarly, Washington’s Jayden Daniels did some damage, but Commanders running backs found few holes (17 carries for 71 yards).
There’s a common theme there: Dallas has been beatable with a quarterback’s legs but has clamped down on traditional runs. And despite Barkley on Thursday recalling Pickett’s fake slide from his University of Pittsburgh days and noting that the Eagles’ backup quarterback can run a little bit, there’s a steep drop-off from what Hurts can do with his legs to what Pickett can do.
That was a big reason for Washington’s second-half success against the Eagles’ ground game Sunday. Barkley noted in the locker room after the game that the Eagles can’t call the same type of plays, passing or running, with Hurts out of the game. Barkley was tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage six times in the second half Sunday.
“We were chasing some runs that we felt like we were close on, and we just ultimately never got the explosive opportunities that we were shooting for,” offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said. “They did a really good job with their pressure plan and eating things up.”
It was, Barkley said, sort of the opposite from the Eagles’ home game vs. Washington on Nov. 14, when the Commanders stopped the run in the first half and then faltered late.
“Sometimes that’s how it plays out,” Barkley said.
Still, the Eagles could find themselves in a similar spot Sunday, especially if Pickett is as inconsistent throwing the football as he was against Washington. It’s expected to be wet and rainy, which will make throwing the football even more difficult.
The Commanders showed that, with Pickett under center, there’s at least a blueprint for stopping Barkley and the running game. Right guard Mekhi Becton said the Eagles just have to get to their points faster and communicate better.
Said Johnson: “We got to do some stuff to counteract [stacking the box], create some confusion, and maybe have some plays that can keep the back side honest so where they can’t just splash down to make plays.”
If not, it could be another slog for the running game.
The Eagles play in Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.