Saquon Barkley takes blame for critical drop that opened door in Eagles' stunning collapse

PHILADELPHIA – Jalen Hurts leaned over to make himself eye-level with Saquon Barkley, seated at his locker.

The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback typically visits with most teammates personally after every game, win or lose. Having finished their second game together, it was the first time Barkley and Hurts had spoken after a loss, a 22-21 heartbreaker at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons on “Monday Night Football.”

“He said he’s going to trust me every time in that situation,” Barkley said after the game.

The “situation” in question: third-and-3 with the Eagles leading 18-15 from the Atlanta 10-yard line. Atlanta had no timeouts with 1:46 to go. With a first-down conversion, the Eagles could kneel out the clock. A touchdown would have made it a two-possession game.

Instead, the ball wound up on the ground. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore called for a pass play and, for the opening developments of the play, it looked like a wise decision. Hurts took the snap under center and showed his back to the defense. Barkley sprinted right and clearly had the edge for the first down and perhaps a touchdown. The quarterback threw him the ball in stride, except it hit off the running back's fingertips. The ball hovered above his hands as he clasped them to somehow secure possession – to no avail.

“Make that catch,” Barkley said, “game’s over.”

The clock stopped. Atlanta’s offense marched down the field and looked like running water flowing through a crevice. The Falcons went 70 yards in six plays and needed 65 seconds to take the lead. Kirk Cousins hit Drake London for the game-tying touchdown, Younghoe Koo’s 48-yard extra point was true and Hurts’ interception on the ensuing last-gasp 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 a little more when you’re the one who’s making a mistake on that play.”

Said Hurts: “Obviously, it’s a tough loss. We learn from it. I trust him every day of the week to make a play just like everybody else, and so we’ll be better from it.”

Head coach Nick Sirianni didn’t want to pin the blame on Barkley’s drop.

“It’s never just one play. It’s never just that play,” he said. “All the plays equal up to the win or the loss.”

Sirianni questioned whether he should have gone for the first down again on fourth-and-3, especially since the Eagles had converted in a similar spot earlier in the game. He wanted to go up six points though, he said.

“In that scenario, (it) obviously didn’t work,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, I’m going to second-guess myself in those scenarios that it doesn’t.

“Any time it doesn’t work out, you know, that’s why I’m sitting in this seat, the head coaching seat. I’ve got to be ready for the consequences of whether it works or doesn’t work.”

For full clarity on the reasons for passing the ball in that situation, answers will have to come from Moore.

“Again, we can’t just be too predictable that we’re going to say, ‘Hey, every third-and-3, if you’re in four-down mode, you’re going to run the football.’ That’s not realistic in this league,” Sirianni said.

Hurts did not have a problem with what he heard from Moore before relaying it to the huddle.

“It’s not a matter of expectations. It’s just a matter of executing what’s called,” Hurts said, “and (we) came up short in that moment.”

One reason for the play call, Sirianni said, was that the Falcons' defensive line was “junking it up” on the interior. Attacking the perimeter was how the Eagles wanted to end the game. A field goal from Jake Elliott seemed to suffice.

“I wanted them to be down a touchdown,” Sirianni said, “and see if they could drive the field and they did.”

Careful what you wish for.

Not all was lost for Philadelphia, as 34 seconds (plus two timeouts) remained for Hurts to drive Philadelphia into field-goal range; Elliott has made several clutch field goals in his career. Falcons safety Jessie Bates III slid under Hurts’ final throw of the night, which had been intended for wide receiver DeVonta Smith, to complete the sudden comeback.

The first boo from the crowd clocked in at 8:19 p.m. ET, four minutes of real time after kickoff. Those still remaining at Lincoln Financial Field on the night the organization honored Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles let the team have it as the teams shook hands on the field with zeros on the clock.

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Of course, the Eagles did not have wide receiver A.J. Brown available, and he could miss the next few games. Moore could also answer why he abandoned feeding Barkley the ball on handoffs after he rushed for 40 yards in the first quarter. Hurts didn’t seem interested in passing the ball for much of the game and was content to leave the pocket and scramble.

But during the game’s most pivotal play, the star quarterback needed to connect with the team’s offseason free-agent acquisition brought in to make plays like that. It was Barkley’s 16th drop since the start of the 2021 season, the most among running backs, according to ESPN.

Both Hurts and Barkley said it was a play they have practiced plenty during their first offseason as teammates. Barkley had nearly scored on a similar play earlier in the fourth quarter, but replay review determined his knee was down inches prior to the football crossing the goal line.

And he knew that the questions he answered at his locker after Hurts walked away were a product of his own doing.

“I could complain and be upset about it,” Barkley said, “or I could be a professional athlete, go back to the drawing board, take the lick, move on and get better from it.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Saquon Barkley's drop proves critical in Eagles' stunning collapse