Saquon Barkley didn’t mince words when addressing a costly dropped pass at a critical juncture on third-down against the Atlanta Falcons that likely would have iced the game for the Philadelphia Eagles, but instead opened the door just wide enough for Kirk Cousins to orchestrate a game-winning drive.
With 1:46 remaining in Monday night’s Week 2 game, and the Eagles needing a first down to be able to kneel down on a win, Barkley broke wide open in the flat only to have a Jalen Hurts pass bounce off his hands at the nine-yard line. Just 1:35 later, Cousins hit Drake London for a touchdown to cap a 70-yard game-winning drive that took all of 1:05 to cap off an eventual 22-21 victory.
Afterwards, Barkley took full responsibility for the Eagles’ loss.
“I dropped the ball, let my team down today,” Barkley told reporters.
The Eagles’ defense wound up buckling, as Cousins made Atlanta’s final scoring drive look easy, and Barkley says he never should have put Vic Fangio’s unit in that position.
“I could sit here and complain and be upset about it, or I could be a professional athlete and go back to the drawing boards and take the lick and move on and get better from it,” Barkley said. “I’ve made that play multiple times. I’ve missed that play before too, meaning the situation. It happens. It’s part of the game. I’ve just got to be better. I let my team down, I gotta man up to it. I got to own, which I’m doing. Gotta promise those guys in this locker room that I’ll be better for them.”
While Barkley finished with 95 rushing yards while adding four receptions for 21 yards, but it ultimately wound up being the catch that he didn’t make that will be remembered from this game, a lost opportunity for the Eagles.
Philadelphia will hope for a quick turnaround, and it won’t get much easier in Week 3 against the undefeated and high-flying New Orleans Saints. The Eagles are looking to avoid the kind of backslide over the second half of the 2023 campaign that saw the Eagles slip from a 10-1 start to losing on the road in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.
