Did Eagles forget about Saquon Barkley? Why offensive frustrations could be extending to star RB

PHILADELPHIA -- There wasn't any public outcry for Saquon Barkley to get the football following Sunday's loss to the Broncos. That should have been the case.

One week after A.J. Brown expressed his frustrations on social media regarding the offense -- and his role in it -- the Eagles catered to their star receiver. They threw the ball 44 times and Jalen Hurts attempted a season-high 38 passes, or 13 more attempts than his season average (25.3) heading into Week 5. 

The Eagles pass-run ratio was 80%, far above the 45.5% going into Sunday's game. The receivers got their targets and the Eagles attempted to throw the ball downfield, which is what Brown and DeVonta Smith have been asking. 

Lost in the shuffle was Saquon Barkley, the ninth running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. The NFL single-season record holder for rushing yards in a season (including playoffs) with 2,504. He got six carries on the day, totaling 30 yards rushing. 

Barkley shouldn't feel bad. The Eagles only ran the ball 11 times, or just 20% of the offensive plays. The Eagles got away from the system that makes them comfortable, and they lost. 

Eagles passed and failed in Week 5 loss to Broncos, as running game ground to a halt by design

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"I'm not going to really get too caught up in that. At the end of the day, whether we ran the ball enough or not, we had an opportunity to win a football game, and we didn't," Barkley said following Sunday's loss to the Broncos. "We didn't do enough. 

"So, I really don't caught up in, are we throwing the ball enough? Or are we running the ball enough? Can we win a football game? It's going to look different every single game. So far, we're 4-1, and we didn't win today."

Barkley is right. It will look different every single game, and the Broncos played man coverage 27.3% of the time. The defense called for the Eagles to throw the ball deep and give Brown and Smith opportunities to make a play. 

But there's a healthy balance. The Eagles chose to ignore what won them 20 of 21 games over the previous 371 days, abandoning the run after building a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter. They threw 19 passes and ran the ball once since that point in the game, with that one carry going to Barkley.

It's almost if they forgot Barkley was on the team, the player that carried this team to a championship last year. 

"I really don't know what people want," Barkley said. "If I touch the ball too much, sometimes we're not throwing enough. We throw it too much and I only have 9 touches. It's like, I'm not in the business of 'What are we doing enough?' I'm in the business of winning football games, and we didn't win the football game. 

"With 9 touches, we had an opportunity to win the football game, still, and we didn't."

The Eagles have a simple philosophy, pass early in games to build a lead. Then run the ball and seal the victory, the formula that led Barkley to 1,245 rushing yards in the second half of games in the regular season last year -- an average of 6.7 yards per carry.

This season is a complete 180 (sort of like the Eagles offense in Week 5). Barkley has 127 rushing yards in the second half, averaging just 2.6 yards per carry. He has 48 carries -- tied for second in the NFL -- yet was completely ignored in Sunday's loss.

Even when the Eagles were struggling with the run game, they ran the ball. Not on Sunday, even though Barkley had six carries for 30 yards and the Eagles averaged 4.1 yards per carry as a team (11 carries for 45 yards). 

Barkley wasn't completely ignored in the game plan. He caught a 47-yard touchdown pass on a wheel route from Hurts early in the third quarter to put the Eagles up 14 points, earning three targets for 58 yards. The Eagles are getting Barkley involved in the passing game as a result of the lack of touches on the ground. 

"I think that's something we can continue to expand upon, especially with a lot of teams focusing on the running game," Barkley said. "I feel like I am a mismatch against linebackers. We have so many talented players here. We can go here and say we can mismatch and do more. 

"We just gotta win football games. And we're 4-1, and we didn't do that today."

There's only one ball to go around, which makes life difficult at times for star offensive players like Barkley, Brown, Smith, and Dallas Goedert. The Eagles have to find ways to feed them all, and everyone has essentially been good soldiers regarding the lack of touches and targets. 

Philadelphia sacrificed Barkley to get the passing game going. By doing so, they paid the ultimate price.

"We gotta figure out what's the reason why we're going to be successful this year," Barkley said. "Whether it's the run game. Whether it's the pass game. Whether it's a blend. I believe that it can be a blend.

"I'm a big believer in whatever the (other) team presents for us, whatever we can take advantage of, we gotta do that."