Eagles stats: Saquon Barkley’s speed, Dallas Goedert’s game-changing catch key road win

NEW ORLEANS — For a large chunk of Sunday’s game at the Caesars Superdome, it looked like the Eagles would be done in by two costly turnovers and more dubious fourth-down decisions from head coach Nick Sirianni. But Saquon Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown run provided the Eagles a jolt, and they escaped the Big Easy with an improbable victory.

More will be learned in the coming days about the key injuries the Eagles suffered, namely the concussions suffered by Lane Johnson and DeVonta Smith, but the Eagles left New Orleans at 2-1 when it seemed they might be staring at a 1-3 start — they play at Tampa Bay on Sunday — heading into their Week 5 bye.

Here are four stats that help tell the story of the Eagles’ win.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Saints takeaways: Bring on the Saquon Barkley-centric offense; Vic Fangio acts fast

There were a few remarkable things about Barkley’s long touchdown run that got the Eagles on the board and helped them turn the tide. Not the least of which being that it came one play after Smith was leveled on what Barkley thought was a late hit — Smith was concussed after his helmet was knocked off his head.

But the 65-yard run itself featured some eye-popping numbers. Let’s start with the speed. Barkley reached a top rate of 21.66 mph, according to Next Gen Stats, the fastest by a ballcarrier on a run play leaguewide in the first three games of season and the second-fastest overall.

Further, the play sits at the top of the list of Next Gen Stats’ “Remarkable Rushes” stat, which tracks how many yards over expected a given play goes for. On that run, the Saints put seven defenders in the box and Barkley was expected to go for just 3 yards.

Barkley has been everything the Eagles wanted and then some. With A.J. Brown missing time and Smith being knocked from Sunday’s game, the running back is the reason the Eagles are 2-1 and not 1-2. Barkley, who rushed for 147 yards on 17 carries Sunday, now leads the NFL with 351 rushing yards.

But it’s worth paying attention to the amount of times Barkley is touching the football. He’s up to 73 plays (63 runs, 10 catches), for a per-game average of 24.3. That’s well over half the amount of non-Jalen Hurts touches for the Eagles so far. Barkley has never had a season with more than 22 touches per game. Right now, the Eagles are riding him out of necessity. We’ll see how long that continues.

Earlier in the week, Jalen Carter described his play as “trash” and judged himself on the same harsh grading scale Sunday inside the visiting locker room at the Superdome.

But Carter had his best game in 2024 and one of his strongest performances as an Eagle in the third game of his second NFL season. He tallied four total tackles, two for losses, and had his imprint all over Sunday’s result with the way he wreaked havoc on the Saints’ offensive line. He played 50 snaps, and his 89% share of the total defensive snaps was the largest of his 19-game NFL career.

The Eagles’ defense flipped the script a bit Sunday, and Carter was a big reason why. He pressured Derek Carr at critical times and had two deflections on Carr pass attempts. Pro Football Focus credited Carter with three hurries and graded his pass rushing performance 93.9, his highest NFL total.

“As long as long as everybody in this locker room is connected, we could be as great as possible,” Carter said.

» READ MORE: Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis play like first-rounders as the Eagles defense pounds the Saints

Facing a third-and-16 from their 35-yard line trailing the Saints by five points with 1 minute, 16 seconds to play, the Eagles had just a 10.2% chance of winning, according to Next Gen Stats.

Then came the game-changing play.

Hurts checked the third-down play, recognizing that the Saints were in man coverage. The new play had tight end Dallas Goedert and wide receiver Jahan Dotson running a “mesh” concept, where they would run intersecting shallow crossing routes.

Dotson executed his portion perfectly, making sure that two Saints defenders collided to free up Goedert, whom Hurts hit in stride over the middle of the field. Goedert sprinted down the sideline to set up the winning score. The 61-yard play increased the Eagles’ chances of winning to 69.9%, according to Next Gen Stats.

Goedert’s 170 yards and 10 receptions were the most he’s had in a game during his six-plus NFL seasons. According to the Eagles, those 170 yards were the most from an Eagles tight end since Pete Retzlaff racked up 204 yards in a 1965 game vs. Washington.

» READ MORE: Dallas Goedert sparks Eagles’ winning drive with a check from Jalen Hurts, an assist from Jahan Dotson

Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson ran all over the Eagles at times last Monday, using outside runs to exploit a run defense that didn’t seem up to the task of stopping any competent rusher. Up next? Just Alvin Kamara, who last week gashed the Dallas Cowboys for 115 yards and three rushing touchdowns using some of those similar types of runs.

Vic Fangio acknowledged that his team was going through some growing pains, but the Eagles’ defensive coordinator said that no wholesale changes were coming and that he and the coaching staff needed to do a better job putting the players in position to succeed.

The Eagles responded well, holding the Saints to 3.1 yards per carry. Kamara, who was at 5.7 yards per carry through two games, went for 87 yards on 26 carries (3.3 yards).

“We just played with an edge today,” defensive tackle Jordan Davis said. “We knew we had a job to fix. We knew we had to fix that issue. Just play with tenacity, everybody across the board.”