ARLINGTON, Texas — There was a disagreement in the visitor’s locker room at AT&T Stadium, 20 minutes and 20 feet apart.
“I’m in a little funk right now,” Saquon Barkley said at his locker stall after he totaled just 22 rushing yards on 10 carries, his lowest output in a game with at least 10 carries since 2022.
Jordan Mailata doesn’t agree.
“He’s not in a funk, man,” Mailata said. “He’s hard on himself. … It’s on all of us up front.”
One thing the running back and left tackle could probably agree on, though, is that what happened Sunday — the Eagles blowing a 21-point lead in a 24-21 loss to the Cowboys — would never, could never, have happened to the 2024 Eagles.
The Eagles lost for a lot of reasons Sunday. They beat themselves with 14 penalties, which tied a high in the Nick Sirianni era. They raced to a 21-0 lead behind an opened-up and aggressive playbook and then went too conservative. They didn’t apply enough pressure on Dak Prescott. They struggled covering Dallas’ one-two punch at wide receiver, especially later in the game with a banged-up secondary.
But they lost Sunday, too, because of their yearlong problem running the football. Yes, they tried to — and sometimes with great success — get their passing game going against one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, but they have consistently struggled this season to control a game and control the clock with what was their greatest weapon in 2024: a running game that broke records. This, with almost the same personnel.
The Eagles were without star right tackle Lane Johnson, which certainly had and will have an impact on their ability to run to the right side for as long as he is out with a Lisfranc injury in his right foot. But even with Johnson on the field this season, they have been unable to get Barkley going.
The Eagles ran four times on first down with leads of 21-0 or 21-7. The results of those runs were: 2 yards, 1 yard, 5 yards, and 1 yard. Barkley’s 2.2 yards per carry Sunday represented the third time this season he was held under 2.5 yards per tote. He had zero such games in 2024.
The Cowboys, Landon Dickerson said, utilized more five-down fronts with their new-look defensive line, something they hadn’t done a lot of prior to Sunday. It was their “flavor of the day,” Dickerson said, but the Eagles couldn’t find a way to break through on the ground. Besides Johnson’s injury, the blockers in front of Barkley have been beaten up. Cam Jurgens cleared concussion protocol in time to play Sunday, but he’s been dealing with back and knee injuries. Dickerson has had multiple injuries, too.
But Barkley said it all starts with him.
“I’m not getting the run game going, I’m not getting yards, and I’m tired of the excuse of people trying to stop our run game,” he said. “I don’t really subscribe to that. I just got to be better, got to make plays.
“I’m a big boy. I’m a man at the end of the day. I’m going to own it and get ready for next week.”
Barkley said the message on the sideline Sunday, as Dallas was mounting its comeback, was “we got to respond.”
“We didn’t do that,” he said. “We got to do a better job of putting teams away. We didn’t do that and I definitely didn’t help. Obviously last year and in other games I was a big part of that and it’s been kind of nonexistent this year. I got to figure it out for the team and I’m going to get it right. I’ll figure it out.”
Barkley found success as a pass catcher Sunday. He had seven catches for 52 yards, but it was after a catch when he made his biggest mark on the game — a fumble with the Eagles driving in Dallas’ territory in a 21-21 game with under eight minutes to play.
“It’s the guy you don’t see,” Barkley said. “We always coach that. They made a good play. I got to be better.”
Barkley, who has gone over 100 yards this season just once, said he doesn’t think he’s pressing. He said he is healthy, too. He’s not frustrated, he said, but is “disappointed in myself.”
The running game, he said, “starts with me, ends with me.”
There’s more to it, though, even if Barkley wants to take all of the ownership. The play call needs to be the right one and the blocking needs to be executed before Barkley does anything. Too often, Barkley has been hit behind the line of scrimmage.
Asked why he feels the need to put it all on his shoulders when so much more goes into the success of the running game, Barkley replied: “Because I’m the running back.”
Barkley said he has “had funks like this before.”
“I just got to break it,” he said. “The only way I know how is by flushing this, working my butt off, and get ready for my next opportunity.”
