Ravens have problems against Raiders, Vikings win over 49ers
Prince Grimes analyzes all the ups and downs of the second week of the 2024 NFL season.
Sport in Seriousness
PHILADELPHIA – Jalen Hurts leaned forward to be eye level with Saquon Barkley, who sits at his locker.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback talks to most teammates face-to-face after every game, win or lose. After finishing their second game together, it was the first time Barkley and Hurts spoke after a loss, a heartbreaking 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football.
“He said he would always trust me in this situation,” Barkley said after the game.
The “situation” in question: Third-and-3 with the Eagles leading 18-15 at Atlanta’s 10-yard line. Atlanta had no timeouts with 1:46 left. The Eagles were able to run down the clock with a first-down conversion. A touchdown would have made it a two-possession game.
Instead, the ball landed on the ground. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore called for a pass play, and early in the game, it seemed like a smart decision. Hurts took the ball under center and turned his back to the defense. Barkley sprinted to the right and clearly had the edge for the first down and maybe a touchdown. The quarterback threw him the ball on the run, only for it to bounce off the running back’s fingertips. The ball hovered above his hands as he clutched them in an attempt to gain some kind of possession – to no avail.
“Make the catch,” Barkley said, “game over.”
The clock stopped. Atlanta’s offense marched down the field looking like running water flowing through a crevice. The Falcons covered 70 yards in six plays and needed 65 seconds to take the lead. Kirk Cousins scored the tying touchdown on a pass from Drake London, Younghoe Koo’s 48-yard extra point was a slam dunk, and Hurts’ last-second interception on the ensuing possession gave the Falcons their first win of head coach Raheem Morris’ tenure.
“The game comes down to a few plays,” Barkley said. “It hurts even more when you’re the one who makes a mistake on that play.”
Hurts said: “Obviously it’s a tough loss. We’re learning from it. I trust him every day of the week to play just like anybody else, and that’s why we’re going to come out of this better.”
Head coach Nick Sirianni did not want to blame Barkley’s absence.
“It’s never just one move. It’s never just that one move,” he said. “All moves determine victory or defeat.”
Sirianni wondered if he should have tried the first try again on the fourth and third attempts, especially since the Eagles had been successful at a similar point earlier in the game. But he wanted a six-point lead, he said.
“It obviously didn’t work in this scenario,” Sirianni said. “Of course, in scenarios like this where it doesn’t work, I’ll reconsider whether it works.”
“If it doesn’t work out, you know, that’s why I’m in this position, the position of head coach. I have to be prepared for the consequences, whether it works out or not.”
To fully clarify the reasons for passing the ball in this situation, answers are needed from Moore.
“We can’t just be too predictable and say, ‘Hey, every third and third down, when you’re in four-down mode, you’re going to run the football.’ That’s not realistic in this league,” Sirianni said.
Hurts had no problem with what he heard from Moore before passing it on to the group.
“It’s not about expectations. It’s just about executing what is said,” Hurts said, “and at this moment we have not done it.”
One reason for this play, according to Sirianni, was that the Falcons’ defensive line was “destroying everything” inside. The Eagles wanted to finish the game by attacking the perimeter. A field goal by Jake Elliott seemed to be enough.
“I wanted them to be down a touchdown,” Sirianni said, “and see if they could take the field, and they did.”
Think about what you want.
All was not lost for Philadelphia, as Hurts had 34 seconds left (plus two timeouts) to put Philadelphia within field goal range; Elliott has made several game-winning field goals in his career. Falcons safety Jessie Bates III slid under Hurts’ final throw of the night, intended for wide receiver DeVonta Smith, to complete the sudden comeback.
The first booing from the crowd came at 8:19 p.m. ET, four minutes after kickoff. Those still at Lincoln Financial Field that night, when the organization honored Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles, cheered for the team as the teams shook hands on the field with zeros on the clock.
Of course, the Eagles didn’t have wide receiver AJ Brown available, and he could miss the next few games. Moore could also explain why he gave up passing the ball to Barkley on handoffs after he ran for 40 yards in the first quarter. Hurts seemed uninterested in passing the ball for most of the game, content to leave the pocket and run.
But during the game’s most crucial play, the star quarterback had to work with the team’s offseason free agent to make such plays. According to ESPN, it was Barkley’s 16th drop since the start of the 2021 season, the most among running backs.
Both Hurts and Barkley said they practiced the play a lot during their first offseason as teammates. Barkley nearly scored on a similar play early in the fourth quarter, but replay showed his knee was down inches before crossing the goal line.
And he knew that the questions he answered at his locker after Hurts left were his own doing.
“I could complain and be upset about it,” Barkley said, “or I could be a professional athlete, start all over again, take it, move on and get better at it.”
