Tom Brady's LFG Player of the Game for Wild Card Weekend: Eagles RB Saquon Barkley
For each game he broadcasts during the 2024 NFL season all the way through Super Bowl LIX, FOX Sports lead NFL analyst Tom Brady is awarding his LFG Player of the Game to that one player he sees on the field who makes him say …
"LET'S F***ING GO!!!"
In the wild-card round, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley took home the award after leading his team to a 22-10 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. With the win, the Eagles advanced to the NFC divisional round for the second time in three seasons. They'll host either the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams or Minnesota Vikings.
Barkley continued his strong play from the regular season in Sunday's victory over the Packers. The star running back rushed for 119 yards on 25 carries (4.8 yards per carry). While Barkley didn't reach the end zone, his 100-plus yard performance on the ground was vital as Philadelphia only had 121 total passing yards in the game.
When Brady met with Barkley after the win, though, he didn't want to talk about his latest 100-yard outing. Rather, he wanted to ask Barkley about Eagles coach Nick Sirianni's decision not to play him in Week 18. Barkley, who amassed 2,005 rushing yards through the first 17 weeks, was only 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season record.
However, Barkley said he was relieved the decision was taken out of his hands.
This browser does not support the Video element.
"No, I mean, it kind of made it easy on me. Coach made the decision for me," Barkley said when Brady asked if it was a tough decision. "Obviously, I wanted to go for it. The team wanted me to go for it. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is advancing and winning playoff football games."
Even so, Barkley admitted that skipping out of last week's game might have impacted their offense's performance early on.
"I felt like we were fresh, we came out a little sluggish, obviously, sitting out that game," Barkley said. "But we got things going, our defense balled out for us and we got the win."
The Eagles only scored 10 points in the first half, with seven of those points coming off a short field after they recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff. But the field started to open a bit more for the offense in the second half, when the Eagles added a few more scores for a decisive win.
[Check out our hub for all things Tom Brady here!]
A large reason for Philadelphia's offense success again on Sunday was its offensive line. In addition to creating running lanes for Barkley, it allowed just two sacks against a team that was tied for eighth in sacks during the regular season.
Brady mentioned to Barkley that he's been averaging 2 yards before contact per rush, a credit to the Eagles' offensive front. While much was made about the financial element of Barkley's deal with the Eagles, he shared that the offensive line played a factor in his decision to join a division rival.
"Yeah, I mean, it's everything," Barkley said of his offensive line. "In the offseason, before I signed here, a big reason why I wanted to come here is to play for Coach Stout (Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland) and those guys up front. They've been doing tremendous jobs. The biggest thing about them is how versatile they are. We can beat you in inside zone, we can beat you in gap scheme, outside zone. Anything they can run, they'll call it. I just follow those guys and they make me look a lot better."
This browser does not support the Video element.
The pairing of Barkley and Philadelphia's offensive line has worked out well, but it's clear that the Eagles' focus is now winning a Super Bowl rather than individual performance. There was no play more indicative of that than Barkley's final touch of the game. As he rushed for a first down in the final two minutes, Barkley could've taken it the distance.
Instead, Barkley slid so the Eagles could run the clock out and prepare for next week.
"I mean, I can't break the record now, right?" Barkley said of his final carry. "The most important thing is winning games. ... AJ [Brown], Smitty (DeVonta Smith) kind of gave me crap. Definitely left some on the bone. But at the end of the day, the stat line don't matter. The only stat line that matters is getting wins and advancing."
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.