The Los Angeles Rams take another shot at stopping Saquon Barkley when they visit the Philadelphia Eagles for an early clash of unbeaten teams on Sunday.
The Eagles (2-0) knocked the Rams (2-0) out of the playoffs last season with a 38-22 divisional round win, with Barkley rushing for 205 yards and two touchdowns on a snowy January day in Philadelphia.
That came two months after his franchise-record 255-yard, two-TD effort in Philadelphia’s 37-20 road win against Los Angeles in Week 12 that supercharged Barkley’s historic 2,000-yard season.
Barkley broke off touchdown runs of 62, 70, 72 and 78 yards in those two meetings — by far the four longest TD runs allowed by the Rams all season.
“He’s great and they’re great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said of Barkley on this week’s “The Coach McVay Show.” “Football is the greatest team sport that there is and they’ve got legitimate threats across the board, whether that’s on the perimeter, at the tight ends. They’re excellent across the board with all five of their offensive linemen, and then obviously Jalen (Hurts) can beat you with his arm, his legs or his mind.
“But you know Saquon is so dynamic. He obviously had such a tremendous impact. Nobody had the production in the history of this game that he had when you combine his regular season and playoffs. And certainly he made his impact and his presence felt in the two games that we played them last year.”
The Rams responded this offseason by signing defensive tackle Poona Ford and linebacker Nate Landman. Results so far have been positive, as Landman was the Week 1 NFC Defensive Player of the Week and the Rams have not given up a TD run through two games.
Barkley, the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Year, has rushed for 148 yards and two scores this season and could be poised for a breakout on Sunday — along with the rest of Philadelphia’s 29th-ranked offense in yards per game (259.0).
All five of the Eagles’ touchdowns have been red-zone runs of 13 or fewer yards, three by quarterback Jalen Hurts, as critics claim the offense has been too predictable under first-year coordinator Sean Patullo.
“We’re constantly making sure that we’re not giving anything away to the defense,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Monday. “But there are times you’re going to have tendencies. You do your best to put a seed of doubt in the defense’s mind to break tendencies. But a lot of teams — good teams have tendencies. But that doesn’t mean you don’t fight like crazy to fight them and to, again, put seeds of doubt in the defense’s mind of what you’re doing.”
Barkley rushed for 88 yards and found the end zone for the second straight week in last weekend’s 20-17 victory at Kansas City, a rematch of the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win.
The Rams arrive with the NFL’s seventh-best offense, averaging 367.5 yards per game behind 37-year-old Matthew Stafford and wide receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
Stafford threw for 298 yards and two touchdowns and Adams recorded his first 100-yard game and first score with L.A. in last week’s 33-19 triumph at Tennessee. Nacua caught eight passes for 91 yards to increase his team-leading totals to 18 and 221.
Rams guard Steve Avila (ankle), tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) and defensive end Braden Fiske (oblique) were considered questionable to begin the week. Avila and Fiske did not practice Wednesday while Parkinson was a limited participant.
For the Eagles, veteran tight end Dallas Goedert (knee) returned to practice Wednesday after missing Week 2 and was a limited participant along with star defensive tackle Jalen Carter (shoulder) and backup quarterback Tanner McKee (thumb). Backup running back Will Shipley (oblique) remains sidelined with the injury he suffered Week 1.
Including the postseason, the Eagles have won nine of the last 10 meetings. The exception was the Rams’ 37-19 win in Philadelphia in Week 2 of 2020.
