Eagles Saquon Barkley Owns Up To Costly Drop: "I Let My Team Down"

The running back dropped a wide-open pass that would have iced a win. Instead. the Falcons stole a road win with a touchdown in the final minute.

Sep 16, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (26) is tackled by Atlanta Falcons safety Jessie Bates III (3) and cornerback A.J. Terrell (24) during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA – When the locker room opened after the Eagles’ heartbreaking 22-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night, Jalen Hurts was already dressed. The quarterback was leaning over talking with Saquon Barkley at the running back’s locker.

Barkley sat on his stool, still draped in a towel after showering, nodding his head at Hurts.

“He said he's gonna trust me every time in that situation,” said Barkley. “We'll be all right. We'll figure it out and get better.”

That situation was an egregious dropped pass by Barkley with 1:42 to play and the Eagles protecting a three-point lead.

“Dropped the ball,” he said. “Let my team down. I shouldn't have put them in that position. I need to make that catch. I need to relax. Go back to my old habits and get back to work.”

If Barkley catches the pass, the game is over. He either scores a touchdown from 10 yards out or gets a first down, which would have iced it, too, because the Falcons were out of timeouts.

The worst thing that could have happened did – a drop. So, the Eagles settled for a field goal to go up six, but it didn’t hold up long, as the Falcons moved 70 yards in just 1:05 and without any timeouts to win the game on a 7-yard touchdown pass to Drake London.

The Eagles could have handed the ball off to Barkley in that moment and he may have been able to get three yards. He was getting tough yards all night long and finished with 95 of them on 22 runs.

Hurts didn’t want to get into the play-calling dynamic.

“I don’t want to add any extra wood to it,” he said. “We just didn’t make the play in that moment. And I trust (Barkley) in every moment. He’s a helluva player. He gave us a big spark in those moments. It just wasn’t for us tonight.”

Nick Sirianni did.

“You know, they were running a certain defense and junking it up in the middle, so we were trying to go around the outside and it didn’t work,” said the coach. “In that scenario I was thinking they might not have any timeouts there, but obviously they did with the incomplete pass. You know, but that would’ve come down to maybe a minute, so we wanted to go up six points; it didn’t work.

“So, the decision to pass it there, again, like I said, they were junking it up inside, with it being fourth and three to go for it, I thought with them not having any timeouts I wanted them to be down a touchdown and see if they could drive the field and they did. Hats off to them.”

There’s not much more the Eagles can do about it now, because they have a short week to get ready to play the undefeated and high-scoring New Orleans Saints in Nola on Sunday.

“I could complain and be upset about it, or I could be a professional athlete and go back to the drawing board,” said Barkley. “Take the lick and get better from it. I made that play multiple times. I missed that play before, too. 

“It's part of the game. I just gotta be better. I let my team down. I gotta man up to it. I gotta own it, which I'm doing. I promised those guys in the locker room that I'll be better from it.”

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