If it were up to Saquon Barkley, he would put the entire Philadelphia Eagles organization on his back and try to sprint into the NFC Championship Game.
The Los Angeles Rams hope to prevent that from happening, but it won’t be easy.
Barkley will be a focal point when the Eagles host the Rams on Sunday afternoon in an NFC divisional-round playoff matchup. No. 2 seed Philadelphia is coming off a win over the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round, and No. 4 seed Los Angeles advanced after a wild-card win over the Minnesota Vikings.
It will be the second meeting of the season between the Eagles and Rams. In the first game, Barkley erupted for a career-high 302 yards from scrimmage, including a franchise-record 255 rushing yards, to go along with two touchdowns.
Philadelphia cruised to a 37-20 win in that one. Barkley became the sixth player in NFL history to record multiple rushing touchdowns of 70-plus yards in a game.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni knows the Rams want to avoid a blockbuster sequel.
“They’ll see stuff on film they want to repeat and they want to do differently,” Sirianni said. “We know we’re going to get people’s best effort to stop Saquon. That’s what we’ve dealt with all year.”
Neither club is a stranger to the big stage. Sirianni and the Eagles are looking to reach the conference title game for the second time in the past three seasons, and Rams coach Sean McVay is aiming for his third championship game in eight seasons.
The teams took far different paths to this point in the postseason.
Philadelphia was one of the best teams in the NFL for much of the regular season as it surged to a 12-2 start and finished 14-3 as the NFC East champions.
Los Angeles, on the other hand, lost four of its first five games and sat at 5-6 in the standings after the loss to Barkley and the Eagles on Nov. 24. But then the Rams closed the regular season on a 5-1 run to clinch the NFC West, and they dominated the Vikings in their playoff opener, 27-9, despite the game being moved to Arizona because of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
McVay said the early-season struggles were a blessing, in retrospect.
“All those scars were necessary to be able to get us to the point we are today,” McVay said. “There’s a resilience, a grit. You learn from those challenging setbacks, and that’s where real growth can occur if people take the right approach.”
Matthew Stafford is the steadying influence who runs the Rams offense. He passed for 3,762 yards, 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions in the regular season, and he posted a 117.7 passer rating last week while completing 19 of 27 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns against the Vikings. Stafford is 5-1 in the playoffs with the Rams.
Wideouts Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp are Stafford’s top two weapons in the passing game and will test the Philadelphia secondary. Running back Kyren Williams racked up 1,299 yards and 14 touchdowns in the regular season and also will pose a threat.
For the Eagles, Jalen Hurts will look to build upon a playoff opener in which he completed 13 of 21 passes for 131 yards and two scores in the 22-10 win. He also rushed six times for 36 yards, and he will give Philadelphia a dual threat as the Rams primarily focus on Barkley.
Sirianni praised Hurts for taking care of the football and giving his team a chance to win.
“It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?” Sirianni said. “Impressive by him in being able to lead us to wins and not turn the ball over. And be explosive doing it. Everybody has hard jobs to do, but that’s a very hard job for Jalen to do. Can’t give him enough credit.”
Eagles wideout A.J. Brown will try to break out in the receiving game after catching only one pass for 10 yards last week. Brown missed practice Wednesday to rest his knee but said he would return to practice later in the week and be ready to play Sunday.
On defense, the Rams are coming in hot after matching an NFL playoff record with nine sacks against the Vikings a week ago. Kobie Turner had two sacks, and Byron Young and Neville Gallimore finished with 1 1/2 sacks apiece.
The Eagles also boast a high-energy defense. Philadelphia turned in a stellar defensive performance with four takeaways against the Packers in the wild-card round. The unit led the NFL in turnover margin (plus-17) and points scored off takeaways (97) over the final 11 weeks of the regular season.
This is the fourth time the teams have met in the playoffs and the first time since the 2001 season. The Rams hold a 2-1 edge in the series.
–Field Level Media
