Saquon Barkley Takes Blame for Eagles’ Loss: ‘I Dropped the Ball. I Let My Team Down’

While the early returns for Saquon Barkley as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles have been overwhelmingly positive, the two-time Pro Bowler’s dropped pass late in the fourth quarter on Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons proved extremely costly.

After the Eagles’ 22-21 loss, Barkley took responsibility for not making the catch on 3rd-and-3 that would have sealed the win for Philadelphia.

“I dropped the ball,” he told reporters. “I let my team down today. The defense should not have been put in that position.”

The Eagles were holding a 18-15 lead with 1:46 remaining and trying to run out the clock. They ran Barkley out of the backfield for a quick pass that would have allowed him to turn up field and either get the first down or score a touchdown to seal the win, but the ball hit off his hands and fell incomplete.

After the Eagles settled for a field goal, Kirk Cousins drove the Falcons 70 yards in six plays and capped it off with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Drake London. Younghoe Koo kicked a 47-yard extra point for the lead after London received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Philadelphia’s last attempt to get in field-goal position ended when Jessie Bates III picked off Jalen Hurts’ pass intended for DeVonta Smith with 19 seconds remaining.

Even though Barkley should have made the catch to end the game, head coach Nick Sirianni deserves blame for the decision to call a pass in that situation and then kicking a field goal on fourth down.

The Falcons had no timeouts prior to the third-down play, so even an unsuccessful run would have kept the clock running down to roughly 1:05 remaining. The Eagles could have run a play on fourth down to try to convert. Even if it was unsuccessful, they would have taken more time off the clock and forced the Falcons to drive 50 yards to get into position for a game-tying field goal.

By win probability, the Eagles made a bad decision to kick and go up six in that situation because a touchdown by the opposing team still beats you.

Adding to the confusion of the third-down play call is the Eagles had been virtually unstoppable running the ball in this game. They finished with 186 yards on 37 carries and converted the tush push twice on their previous drive.

Needing only three yards, it’s reasonable to assume Hurts could have picked that up with two chances to run the tush push.

Even with the benefit of hindsight, the entire final sequence of events for the Eagles on offense was confusing because it took them away from what was working for most of the game.

Barkley had another strong showing despite the drop. He finished 116 yards from scrimmage on 26 touches in the loss.

The Eagles missed a golden opportunity to start 2-0 and will look to get back on track in Week 3 against the surprising New Orleans Saints.