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Nick Sirianni praised Saquon Barkley and stood by Jake Elliott on The Pat McAfee Show after the Eagles’ 26-18 win over the Washington Commanders put even more separation between the two sides in the NFC East standings.
While Barkley’s stellar performance helped lead the team to its sixth straight win of the season — he finished with 198 total yards and a pair of touchdowns — Elliott’s misadventures on Thursday night could’ve been costly.
Elliott missed two field goals in the first half (44 and 51 yards) before missing an extra point in the fourth quarter. Ultimately, the seven lost points didn’t impact anything other than the Eagles’ margin of victory, thanks to the defense and Barkley’s fourth quarter takeover. Despite his struggles — he’s yet to hit from over 50 yards this season (0-for-4) and is just 10 of 14 (71.4%) since the bye — Sirianni said Friday that he still has confidence in Elliott moving forward.
“We have so much faith in Jake,” Sirianni said. “He’s made so many kicks here and so many big-time kicks here, dating back to before I got here. Ever since I’ve been here, he’s made some big-time kicks. Just an unusual game for him. I have no doubt in my mind that this team will rally around that. That’s what you do as a team.
“We know that he’s going to respond. We know that he’s clutch. We know that he’s coming back next week. We knew we needed him to make those kicks, those extra points to put us up [later in the game] … I’m just looking forward to the next time he gets out there and has the opportunity to set it straight. I got so much faith in Jake … Jake will get right back on track, I have no doubt in my mind.”
» READ MORE: Jake Elliott’s bad night was a kick in the pants to Eagles fans. They shouldn’t worry. | Mike Sielski
Meanwhile, it was another big night for Barkley, who currently leads the NFL in yards from scrimmage. And even though he’s already played his game this week, the Eagles have already had their bye week, and the next six players behind Barkley in total scrimmage yards have not, meaning they’ve also all played 10 games. The closest player with nine games played — the Lions’ Jahmyr Gibbs — has over 400 fewer yards than Barkley.
In the win, the NFL’s current leading rusher eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards on the season and joined recent Eagles Hall of Fame inductee LeSean McCoy (2011) as the second player in franchise history to reach the 1,000-yard mark through the first 10 games of a season.
But Barkley’s talent isn’t the only trait that makes him a key part of this Eagles offense.
“Saquon Barkley, man, you guys see it,” Sirianni said. “He is a special, special talent. What’s not known about him quite as much is how good of a teammate he is, how hard of a worker he is. He’s a special player, special teammate, special dude. We’re so thankful that he’s on this football team. He’s helping us win games.
“I think any time you get a player of his caliber guys are going to look at him and they’re going to follow him. He stands for all the right things. Like I said, the way he works, the way he goes about his business each day. It’s just contagious.”
» READ MORE: With Saquon Barkley, the Eagles don’t have to ‘worry ‘bout a thing’
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