Saquon Barkley had the opportunity to punctuate the Eagles' wild-card win over the Packers with a long touchdown run late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, but the running back decided that was enough once getting past the first-down marker.
"No más," Barkley said. "It's situational football. A first down ends the game."
With the Eagles holding a 22-10 lead and a little over a minute to play, Barkley took his 25th carry of the game and sprung through a hole on the left side, speeding past defenders with pay dirt in sight 65 yards downfield. However, the All-Pro running back carefully brought himself to a stop at Philadelphia's 41-yard line to set up a final play in victory formation.
Barkley wasn't taking any chances knowing he essentially secured the W with a 17-yard gain.
"You never know," Barkley said. "I break that long one, I keep running and I pull a hammy (hamstring). Someone is chasing me, and they pull a hammy and we lose a guy for next week. Get down, put a smile on your face and move on. That's the thing that matters most."
Of course, this isn't the first time Barkley's individual success has taken a back seat for the team's betterment.
Barkley had a good shot at breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record entering Week 18, needing just 101 yards to eclipse the Hall of Famer's mark of 2,105 yards. Barkley sat out the regular-season finale against the Giants, a decision ultimately made by head coach Nick Sirianni and one perfectly OK with the 27-year-old.
As he did then, Barkley was putting team success above all else.
"We won. That's the most important thing," Barkley said. "I know a lot of people will get into stats to see how we did and if we were rusty and how did Jalen (Hurts) look, but that's your job. You're all supposed to do that. You're doing your job, but in reality, in this locker room, the only thing that matters is winning football games, whether we win 45-44 or 3-0.
"That's our mentality and that's our mentality for the rest of the playoffs, and we're going to stick to that."
A long TD run on Sunday would've made for a memorable end for Philadelphia but wouldn't have changed the result. Barkley still produced the best playoff game of his career with 119 rushing yards, adding to what has been an incredible debut season with the Eagles.
Barkley became the ninth member of the 2,000-yard rushing club, finishing an MVP-caliber campaign at 2,005 yards with 15 total touchdowns (13 rushing, two receiving). He now sits at 2,124 rushing yards for the 2024 season, including the playoffs, which is the fifth-most by any player in a season in NFL history, according to NFL Research.
The Eagles' road back to a Super Bowl continues this weekend in the Divisional Round, a game to be played at Lincoln Financial Field. Who Philadelphia hosts will be decided once Vikings-Rams concludes on Monday night.
