Saquon Barkley — Week 3: Seventy-Three Before Halftime
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Wednesday, Sep 30
Barkley carried 15 times for 82 yards and four first downs, 73 of the yards on 11 first-half carries, including a 14-yard run to the Chicago 1 with 8:15 left in the second quarter. From there he was stopped for minus 1 and no gain, and Andy Dalton's third-down throw was intercepted in the end zone; after halftime he had 4 carries for 9 yards, in a 27–7 loss to the Bears.
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Seven to nothing, Bears, eight 15 left in the second quarter, second and four at the Chicago 15. Saquon Barkley went around left end and was pushed out of bounds at the one, 14 yards. +1.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 4.7 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It was the ninth play of a drive that had started at the Philadelphia three. Then first and goal at the one: Barkley behind the right guard, −1. Second and two: Barkley behind the right guard, no gain. Third and two: Andy Dalton, in for Jalen Hurts, who the play-by-play records as injured on a scramble four snaps earlier, threw short middle for Dontayvion Wicks, and it was intercepted in the end zone. 12 plays, from the Philadelphia three to within a yard of the goal line, no points.
The line: 15 carries, 82 yards, no touchdown, four first downs, eight of the 15 successful, +2.2 expected points on the carries; two targets, one catch, −2 yards. The carries went 12, four, seven, three, eight, three, 17, six, 14, −1, nothing, seven, one, nothing and one. Nine of them came on that one second-quarter drive, for 57 yards. The 17 was second and five at the Chicago 38, around right end to the 21, and the 12 came on the Eagles' second snap, first and 10 at their own 44. 11 carries before halftime for 73 yards; four after for nine, none longer than seven, on a night Philadelphia trailed by 13 or more for most of the second half. A 19-yard run around left end in the first quarter came back on a holding penalty. Two carries from inside the five, both stopped. No carries on third down. The catch was second and three in the third quarter, short right, tackled for −2.
Barkley had 15 of Philadelphia's 16 designed runs; Hurts had the other, the one-yard touchdown from the one with a second left in the half, +3 scrambles. 11 of the 12 first-half designed runs were his. The Eagles' running game came out at +5.8 expected points on 19 runs counting the scrambles, third of the 32 teams this week; the passing game came out at −20.1, last.
Back in June the preview leaned against a bounce-back: a year-eight back whose volume was real but whose efficiency had been ordinary behind the best line in football, a receiving role that had all but vanished, and eight goal-line scores that had gone to Hurts. Week One was 15 carries for 83, 42 of them on one run. Week Two was a stinger on the first snap, per the Philadelphia Inquirer, and four carries. Monday was 15 for 82, the second-half share included, and the touchdown from the one was Hurts's again. Three games: 34 carries, a hundred 74 yards, no touchdowns, three catches for six yards. Three games settle little, and so far each half of the preview's read has shown up at least once. Philadelphia hosts the Rams on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Saquon Barkley's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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