– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
PHILADELPHIA — Whatever nerves and angst that resided inside Lincoln Financial Field as it hosted the game to decide half the participants of the Super Bowl ratcheted up a few levels as the Washington Commanders, the road warriors of the 2024 NFL Playoffs, marched down the field to the tune of 18 plays on the opening drive of the game and took half the quarter off the clock while taking the lead in the process.
It took all of one play, and another electrifying run by Saquon Barkley, to reassure everyone in the City of Brotherly Love that the team’s destiny was indeed pointing to New Orleans. Barkley came to the Eagles to play in big games, and the continuation of his dominance on the ground on Sunday now has Philadelphia in the Big Game once more.
Barkley’s first two touches of the game resulted in touchdowns, including a 60-yard scamper on Philadelphia’s first play from scrimmage, setting the tone in the Eagles’ 55-23 victory over the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game to punch their ticket to the Crescent City and the Super Bowl. Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts each ran for three touchdowns, and the Eagles’ defense forced four turnovers that all resulted in touchdowns on the ensuing drives.
Philadelphia now heads to New Orleans and the Superdome, site of the franchise’s first Super Bowl appearance after the 1980 season, to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, February 9.
Less than a year ago, a once-promising Eagles’ season that started 10-1 floundered as they lost five of their last six, then cratered in a non-competitive defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round. The questions about Hurts’ passing ability, as well as the leadership and temperament of head coach Nick Sirianni, mounted from the second their season ended in Tampa.
Those questions and doubts about the team ended up being answered emphatically by the addition of Barkley from the New York Giants, more than 2,000 rushing yards later.
“It’s been the story of the 2023 to the 2024 Eagles. As bad of a feeling we had about how last year ended, I think it makes you who you are,” Sirianni said. “These guys are hungry, and we’ve got one more to go.”
Barkley was hungry to prove he was still the game-changing back that the New York Giants drafted him to be in 2018 — then decided to part ways with in dramatic (and public) fashion in the offseason — and his historic season continued against the Commanders with the Super Bowl on the line. Along with the first-play score, Barkley added a four-yard run for a touchdown on his second touch of the game — set up by a Diamy Brown fumble recovered by the Philadelphia defense — to give the Eagles a 14-3 lead. Another 4-yard score from Barkley, after another Commanders turnover, was the coup de grace midway through the fourth quarter that opened up a 25-point lead.
“I came to Philly to be part of games like this,” Barkley said. “And there’s nothing better than a game where you can advance to the Super Bowl.”
The 55 points scored are the most any team has scored in a conference championship game since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, and the seven rushing touchdowns as a team tied for the most all-time in a playoff game in league history, tying the Chicago Bears in the 1940 NFL Championship Game at Washington.
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