PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Saquon Barkley decided to only watch from the field as Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown and the rest of his Eagles teammates celebrated and hoisted the NFC championship trophy on the stage.
He had to find his family first.
“That was the only thing on my mind,” Barkley said. “I just wanted to have that moment with my family.”
Barkley sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown on his first carry of the NFC championship game and the Eagles running back never looked back — only ahead to the Super Bowl.
“I know I've never been there,” Barkley said. “But I've been there so many times in my head.”
Barkley finished with 118 yards rushing and three touchdowns — to roaring “MVP! MVP!” chants each time — and led the Eagles to a 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders in the NFC title game on Sunday.
His 2,005 yards rushing in the regular season left him only 101 shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 in 1984 with the Los Angeles Rams. Including the playoffs, Barkley extended an NFL record Sunday with his seventh rushing touchdown of 60-plus yards in a season.
Again, postseason included, Barkley is only 30 yards shy of breaking Terrell Davis’ mark of 2,476 total yards rushing set in the 1998 season when the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl.
Unlike the regular-season finale when he lost his chance at passing Dickerson, there's no sitting out the Super Bowl for the AP NFL MVP finalist.
“If Saquon gets into the second level, third level, now it’s, ‘Hey, can you tackle this guy?’ He’s hard to tackle,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “They don’t give me a vote for MVP, but I know who my vote would — that’s probably why they don’t give me a vote, because I would vote for Saquon.”
The Commanders got a field goal on the opening drive to take some of the air out of the frenzied crowd at Lincoln Financial Field.
Barkley had them going wild on the Eagles' first offensive play from scrimmage when he cut left, spun around a pair of defenders and took off on the touchdown run.
“That's how you start a championship game,” Barkley said. “We knew that when you play a team two or three times, they kind of get a bead on some of your stuff. We gave them a dummy call and it worked to perfection.”
The Eagles recovered a fumble on the next drive and Barkley added the 4-yard run — making him 2 for 2 on carries and touchdowns — for a 14-3 lead. He added a second 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter for a 48-23 lead.
Stuck at just two career playoff games in six seasons with the New York Giants, Barkley rushed for 324 yards combined against Green Bay and the Los Angeles Rams in his first two playoff games with the Eagles.
Long reluctant to spend major money on running backs, the Eagles have reaped the rewards and a rewriting of the franchise record book on their $26 million guaranteed leap of faith on Barkley.
His next stop, New Orleans to face Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
“He’s been paired with a great group in front of him,' Hurts said. ”And I think that’s showing. He’s been able to take us to the next level in many ways, take our running game to the next level in many ways. And he’s been able to do really big, big things.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
