Eagles-Rams Stock Market: Bullies, Barkley and B.G.

The Eagles had an easy time of it on Sunday night, dispensing the Rams 37-20.

Nov 24, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean (17) reacts after sacking Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford during the first half at SoFi Stadium. / Alex Gallardo-Imagn Images

The Eagles had an easy time of it on Sunday night, dispensing the Rams 37-20 on the heels of a historic performance from Saquon Barkley, whose 255 rushing yards were the ninth-best single-game rushing performance in NFL history.

While Barkley's performance was the headliner there was plenty of other developments to take note of in the weekly stock market:

THE BULLS

HISTORY - The Eagles have been around for a bit, 92 years to be exact, and never has the franchise seen a rushing performance like the one Barkley unleased at SoFi Stadium on Sunday night.

The superstar had a career-high and franchise-record 255 yards on the ground -- fueled by touchdown runs of 70 and 72 yards -- and 302 yards from scrimmage, also the most in franchise lore, and the ninth-best in NFL history, and the most by anyone in nine years since Antonio Brown.

When Howie Roseman described Barkley as another weapon to explain his investment, who knew the GM was talking about the biggest weapon the franchise has had in nine decades?

BULLY BALL - With all due respect to Barkely's brilliant season, the Eagles' offensive line might want to get out of Southern California quickly because what they did to the Rams undersized front could best be labeled as assault.

The Eagles' offensive line again authored mind-blowing blocks to unleash Barkley on an overmatched back seven with Landon Dickerson pulling off a 2-for-1 on Barkley's first home run and a pulling Mekhi Becton sealing off the interior on No. 2.

"Our O-line is super smart and super versatile, and when you have that, they can block any scheme up," Barkley said. "You can see that defenses are doing a lot of things differently to make sure our running game doesn’t get going. But they put themselves at risk also. I kept trusting the system."

VIC FANGIO - The Eagles veteran defensive coordinator has always been a thorn in Sean McVay's side and that continued on Sunday once the defense got a beat on what LA was trying to do.

In the end, the Philadelphia D again held an opponent under 300 total yards for the seventh straight game, the longest streak for the franchise since 2008. More importantly, Fangio's group held a team with Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Puka Nucua without a third-down conversion for 60 minutes.

THIRD-DOWN DOMINANCE - Nothing will explain a blowout better than countering that 0-for-8 by the Rams on third downs with 9-for-15 level efficiency. In fact, it indicated that things could and likely should have been much worse for the Rams.

THE BEARS

BG'S TRICEP - At the tender age of 36 Brandon Graham was playing at an amazing level.

Against the Rams, the popular Graham created havoc all night finishing with a sack, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits, a pass breakup, and unfortunately a torn triceps that will end his season and possibly his career.

"I’m just trying to process everything right now. I ain’t got that far," Graham said when asked about his future after confirming the injury. "I’m going to keep my spirits up and keep enjoying it, man, because we got a special team right now.

"And it’s time for some people to step on up. I’m happy where we’re at. I’m happy as a team. If anything, I’m gonna go out happy with the way I played today. I couldn’t ask for nothing else with this team that we got. We just have to stay focused and I’m gonna make sure as far as me as a leader I’m gonna make sure my presence is felt as far as that part."

INTERMISSION INDECISION - A Nakobe Dean sack with about 1:15 left in the first half put the Rams in a third-and-13 situation and rather than call a timeout, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni allowed LA to run the clock down before the next play which essentially was a white flag run.

That's no big deal if Philadelphia just wanted to get into the locker understanding it was getting the ball first in the second half, especially considering the first offensive play in the third quarter was Barkley's 70-yard TD run.

However, Sirianni called timeout with 33 seconds left which begs the question, if you wanted more points why not take the timeout after creating the third-and-long with Dean's sack?

More so, when things went awry and the Eagles faced a 4th-and-7 near midfield with seven seconds remaining, Jalen Hurts' attempt at draining the clock came up two seconds short. What would have been a subsequent Matthew Stafford Hail Mary pass was wiped out by a Josh Sweat sack but the results don't excuse the process that got Philadelphia into that position.

EARLY RED-ZONE HICCUPS - The Eagles settled for field goals on their first two red-zone trips and the second failure was particularly troublesome due to self-inflicted wounds in the form of three penalties killing the drive: an illegal man downfield flag on Dickerson, the rare offensive offside on Jahan Dotson and illegal motion penalty on Dallas Goedert.

All of the flags were legit and the sloppiness kept the Rams in the game longer than they should have been.

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