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Tim McManus, ESPN editor-in-chief
PHILADELPHIA — Eagles running back Saquon Barkley took responsibility for his late fall Monday night, when a catch could have sealed a victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“I let my team down today,” Barkley said after the Eagles’ 22-21 loss. “I shouldn’t have put the defense in that position. If I catch the ball, the game is over.”
With a three-point lead with less than two minutes to go, the Eagles faced a third-and-3 from the Falcons’ 10-yard line. Jalen Hurts sprinted to his right and threw a pass to Barkley, who was free and in position to get a first down. But the ball bounced off his hands and went out of bounds. Philadelphia then elected to kick a field goal to make it 21-15.
Kirk Cousins led a six-play, 70-yard drive in just 1:05 and capped it with a touchdown pass to Drake London, snatching what appeared to be a sure victory for the Eagles.
“They were running a certain defense and blocking it up the middle, so we were trying to get around the outside and it didn’t work,” coach Nick Sirianni said, explaining the decision to go for it on third down instead of running it.
“(On) fourth and three… with no timeouts, I wanted them to be down by a touchdown and see if they could take control of the field, and they did. Hats off to them.”
ESPN Analytics gave the Eagles a better than 96% chance of winning the game if they ran the ball on third down for no gain, then tried to recover it on fourth down or kicked a field goal.
The odds of the Eagles winning if they went for it on fourth down after Barkley’s drop were 95 percent versus 90 percent if they kicked it.
Hurts did not question his decision.
“I trust Barkley every day of the week to make a play, just like everybody else,” he said. “We’ll come out of this better.”
“It’s not about expectations, it’s just about execution. And we failed at that point.”
Barkley now has 16 drops since the start of the 2021 season, the most by a running back in that span.
Barkley, who signed a three-year, $37.75 million contract with the Eagles this offseason, earned NFC Player of the Week honors after scoring three touchdowns in a season-opening win over the Green Bay Packers.
His home debut didn’t go as planned, and now he and the Eagles (1-1) must bounce back as they travel to face the resurgent New Orleans Saints on a short week.
“I could sit here and complain and be upset about it or I could be a professional athlete and go back to the drawing board, take the hits and move on and get better,” Barkley said.
