In what’s become a weekly underscore to Saquon Barkley’s first season with the Eagles, the former Giant clearly has a shot at making history for both the Eagles and the NFL.
While going 107 yards Sunday amid a 24-19 win over the Baltimore Ravens, Barkley reached 1,499 yards rushing over 12 games. He passed Ricky Watters all-time in Eagles single season rushing totals, moving into third place in the books in that category.
Dead ahead is Wilbert Montgomery, who amid a glorious 1979 season danced for 1,512 yards over 16 games. It shouldn’t take Barkley but a few carries Sunday against Carolina to get past historic hero Montgomery, who in September turned 70 years old (blink hard on that one, old guys).
Beyond that, Barkley would focus on LeSean McCoy’s franchise record of 1,607 yards rushing from 11 years ago. Again, that was done over 16 games in 2013.
It’s quite feasible that the record could fall Sunday in Barkley’s 13th game of the season. But blind luck would have nothing to do with it.
“I’m well aware of it,” Barkley said Wednesday. “That’s something that once I got here, I looked up the history of the Eagles’ running backs. … I wasn’t familiar with William Montgomery – am I saying that correctly? – Wilbert? Wilbert Montgomery. I wasn’t familiar with him, but I got to do a deep dive on him, (Brian) Westbrook and Shady (McCoy).
“That’s your goal. You want to come in here, you want to leave a legacy on a place, on a franchise. I had the same mindset in New York, sadly that came up short. So yeah, I’m aware of that but it’s not the driving factor. The driving factor is winning football games, and putting us in a position to go and win it all.
“I’m aware of the things I can accomplish but the way I can accomplish it is by sticking to the script.”
It would be hard to envision Barkley envisioning a better script than what’s played out over these first dozen games for him. Not only has his team embarked on an eight-game winning streak – and the Birds are heavily favored to make it nine on Sunday – but the veteran from rival New York whose game was developed in the Lehigh Valley easily won over Eagles fans not only with results, but by revealing his obvious hard-work ethic and team-first character.
But it’s the results that are hard to believe.
Beyond the Eagles team record chase, Barkley leads the NFL in rushing yards and in yards from scrimmage with 1,766. Tennessee Titans star Chris Johnson legged 2,509 of those in 2009, and Barkley has a real shot at that. He also has somewhat of a chance to eclipse the all-time single season rushing record of 2,105 yards set by the Colts’ Eric Dickerson in 1984.
Barkley would have to maintain his recent pace to get to either one of those records over the final five games of the season, and it stands to reason that he might be mostly rested in the last game of the season against his old team, the Giants. But as it stands now no one would bet against him in his chase for any and all individual achievements.
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While the Eagles were listed earlier in the week as a 12-point favorite over Carolina, the Panthers have been playing better in recent weeks behind resurgent young quarterback Bryce Young.
They beat the Saints and Giants in consecutive weeks before bowing by only three points each to Super Bowl champion Kansas City and then Tampa Bay over the past two weeks.
Thus, Nick Sirianni said the Eagles had better be on their guard.
“We know that this is a talented team that’s continuing to play good football,” Sirianni said. “You can look at their last four games. They’ve played really good football. If you take anybody lightly in this league, it will humble you fast.
“This is a good team that has our attention, and our job each and every week is to be focused on the job at hand and lock in every single week. You don’t have to go there when that’s just your mission. That’s our standard, that’s our culture, and that’s what we do each and every week.”
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NOTES >> Two veteran Eagles who were missed against the Ravens, receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring) and cornerback Darius Slay (concussion) were able to practice Wednesday and are possible for a return against the Panthers. … Others who weren’t there included tight end Dallas Goedert (undetermined knee injury) and kick returner Britain Covey (neck). Also, Reed Blankenship (concussion) was there on the side and Sydney Brown (knee) didn’t practice fully.
Source: Berkshire mont
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