Eagles stats: Saquon Barkley’s top speed, defensive domination highlight blowout win over Giants

Saquon Barkley’s return to MetLife Stadium could not have gone much better for the Eagles.

Their free-agent addition needed just three quarters to finish 13 yards shy of his career-high in rushing yards. His 176 yards on the ground were part of a rushing attack that tallied 269 yards on the day. The Eagles committed to the run behind a banged-up offensive line and were able to control the clock as their defense dominated the New York Giants.

Here are four stats that help tell the story of the Eagles’ 28-3 win over their NFC East foe.

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Think Barkley wasn’t revved up for this one? He’s never run faster in his career, according to Next Gen Stats.

Barkley reached a top speed of 21.93 mph during his 55-yard run in the second quarter. Not only was that Barkley’s fastest recorded speed, it was also the second-fastest speed reached by a ball carrier this season.

That run was a big one for the Eagles, whose offense didn’t score in the first quarter and whose running game had just 20 yards on eight carries at that point. Barkley accumulated 134 of his 176 yards on three big runs.

Barkley now accounts for two of the top five speeds by a ball carrier this season. He previously hit 21.66 mph during his 65-yard touchdown run in New Orleans during his team’s Week 3 win over the Saints.

Barkley’s 658 rushing yards are the most by an Eagles running back through the first six games of a season.

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The Eagles entered Sunday with 11 sacks this season. They left MetLife Stadium tied for eighth in the NFL with 19 sacks. Six different Eagles tallied at least one sack, with Nakobe Dean and Jalen Carter each getting home twice. The Eagles have 13 sacks over their last two games, which have come against teams with weakened offensive lines.

The Eagles didn’t have to do much to get to Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. According to Next Gen Stats, all eight of their sacks came on plays that featured a four-man pass rush. That marked the most sacks and the highest sack rate (21.6%) by a four-man pass rush by any team in a game this season.

One of the early storylines to this Eagles season was the slow start of edge rusher Bryce Huff, whom the team signed to a $51.1 million deal this past offseason. On Sunday, Huff generated five pressures on 18 pass rushes, according to Next Gen Stats, and picked up his first full sack of the season. He entered the game with just two pressures on 83 pass-rush snaps.

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Barkley’s big plays inside his former stadium stole the spotlight, but the defense put together a second straight strong showing and enabled the Eagles to play in front and keep the ball in the hands of Barkley and Kenneth Gainwell.

The Eagles allowed just 119 total net yards on 55 Giants plays, an average of just 2.2 yards per play. It was the fewest yards the Eagles allowed in a game since holding Washington to just 89 yards during a 24-0 win on Dec. 30, 2018. Adding to the embarrassment for the Giants on a day their former running back dominated: Those 119 yards marked the lowest yardage output by a Giants offense in 25 years.

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It was boom or bust for Barkley on Sunday. Take away his three explosive runs and he tallied just 42 yards on 14 carries (three yards per carry).

The passing game wasn’t anything special Sunday, mostly because it didn’t have to be, but it, too, featured a key explosive play: Jalen Hurts connecting with A.J. Brown for a 41-yard touchdown.

The Eagles talk a lot about explosive plays, and they hit a few of them Sunday. Explosive plays are generally defined as passing plays that go for 20-plus yards and running plays that go for 15-plus yards.

The Eagles might want the NFL to carve out a new category. Let’s call it Super Explosive Plays. The Eagles now lead the NFL with 10 total plays of 40-plus yards. Six of them have come through the air and four on the ground. The San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions are next on the Super Explosive Play list entering Monday at seven plays of 40-plus yards apiece.