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Eagles advance through snow as Rams advance to NFC Championship Game


PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles reached the NFC Championship Game on the strength of Saquon Barkley and defense, beating the Los Angeles Rams 28-22 in the divisional round on Sunday.

In other words, nothing has changed.

Barkley proved to be the Rams’ kryptonite once again, rushing for a franchise-record 205 yards. He broke off two touchdown runs of more than 60 yards, including a 76-yarder in the late stages of the fourth quarter that sparked a party at Lincoln Financial Field, complete with “MVP” chants and snowball throwing.

His performance was reminiscent of the Week 12 matchup against Los Angeles when he had a franchise-record 255 yards.

When the game was in doubt, and it was after quarterback Jalen Hurts was brought down for a safety that closed the margin to one late in the third quarter. Former Georgia teammates Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith Jr. forced fumbles on consecutive drives to set up a pair of field goals that gave Philadelphia some breathing room. Then Barkley played closer.

There will be some questions about Hurts’ health (he appeared to injure his left leg in the second half) and whether the passing game is up to the test heading into the NFC title game against the Washington Commanders on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, Fox). But the effectiveness of the formula that got them there cannot be denied.


Biggest hole in the game plan: Clock management to finish the first part. Coach Nick Sirianni’s handling of the situation was questionable. After a sack by Hurts got the Eagles back to the Rams’ 45-yard line, Philadelphia could have taken a timeout with about 20 seconds left to try to run a play that would get them back into field goal range. Instead, Sirianni let the clock run down to three seconds to set up a Hail Mary, leading to another Hurts sack and zero points for the Eagles.

Most surprising performance: Eagles cornerback Isaiah Rodgers replaced the injured Quinyon Mitchell in the lineup and made one of the biggest plays of the game, scooping up a Kyren Williams fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter and returning it 40 yards. It looked like Barkley cashed in for his second TD of the day, but came up short, leading to a Jake Elliott field goal for a 19-15 Eagles lead.

Surprising Statistic: Barkley reached a top speed of 20.78 mph on his two TD runs. He has nine rushing touchdowns in the season in which he reached over 20 mph. Prior to this season, the Eagles had six such touchdown runs since their NFL Next Gen Stats debut in 2016. Los Angeles Chargers rookie wide receiver Ladd McConkey is the only ball carrier to reach top speed fastest (20.84) in this postseason. — Tim McManus

Next match: vs. Washington Commanders, 3 p.m. ET, Sunday (Fox)


The Rams’ postseason run ended with a loss to the Eagles on Sunday, when the team scored 22 points with snow falling for much of the game in Philadelphia.

The offense found the end zone twice: a 4-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford to tight end Tyler Higbee on the Rams’ first drive of the game and another to Higbee with less than 2½ minutes left in the game. to turn it into six. -Point game.

Stafford completed 26 of 43 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Stafford finishes his third playoff career with the Rams with 15 playoff touchdown passes for Los Angeles, tying Kurt Warner for the most in team history.

The teams traded possessions fairly evenly for three quarters before the Rams had trouble protecting the ball, with fumbles by running back Kyren Williams and Stafford on consecutive drives in the fourth quarter.

According to ESPN Research, the Rams are the first team to lose a fumble in consecutive playoff series since the Dolphins in 2016.

Surprising Statistic: Stafford’s first-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Higbee had a 0.4-yard separation on the arrival of the throw. That’s the fewest yards of separation on any touchdown pass by Stafford as a Ram, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

Promising trend: The pressure on the passer. A week after tying a playoff record with nine sacks, the Rams’ young defense sacked Hurts seven times, giving them a total of 16 in a two-game span, the most in a two-game span in playoffs since sacks became official in 1963, according to ESPN Research.

Biggest hole in the game plan: Stopping the Eagles running game. The Rams knew the challenge of this after allowing 314 rushing yards, including a franchise-record 255 to Barkley, in their Week 12 loss to Philadelphia. The Eagles’ first two touchdowns were on runs of 44 yards (Hurts) and 62 (Barkley) and Philadelphia finished with 285 yards rushing. — Sara Barshop



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