Eagles stun Saints amid injuries, Sirianni decisions

NEW ORLEANS − When everything was going wrong for the Eagles, and there was a lot, there was Saquon Barkley taking over the game on offense, and a much-maligned defense that managed to stop the high-scoring Saints without a touchdown well into the fourth quarter.

There was Jalen Hurts two turnovers, the right side of the offensive line, including Pro Bowl tackle Lane Johnson, leaving with injuries; in addition to star wide receiver DeVonta Smith with a possible concussion after fellow receiver A.J. Brown sat out with a hamstring injury; along with an injury to cornerback Darius Slay.

And oh yeah, the Eagles had to overcome questionable decisions by head coach Nick Sirianni, who twice passed up field goals trying to convert on fourth down, and failing each time. And the Eagles also had a punt blocked.

You would think it would be a repeat of the Eagles’ 48-7 debacle in 2018 against the Saints, who had scored 91 points through two games.

Instead, the Eagles came away with a hard-fought, 15-12 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday after Saquon Barkley’s second of two touchdowns, this one a 4-yard run with 1:01 left.

That was set up by Dallas Goedert’s 61-yard reception. Barkley got the Eagles on the board with a 65-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter.

Barkley finished with 17 carries for 147 yards. And Hurts, despite the turnovers, was 29 of 38 for 311 yards. The Eagles needed all of it, including Goedert’s huge day as he had career highs in receptions with 10, for 170 yards.

Goedert said Brown, sitting out his second straight game with a hamstring injury, told him after Smith left the game early in the fourth quarter with a concussion on a brutal hit: “You gotta put the cape on.”

Barkley, meanwhile, said that was easy playing with a quarterback like Hurts, who despite his turnovers, never lost his cool.

“He’s the most poised human being I’ve been around my whole life,” Barkley said. “He just comes in the huddle and says, ‘Everything’s gonna be all right.’ He’s always got that look on his face, like, no need to worry, just keep going at it, keep working, and we’ll be all right. You can just see it. He doesn’t even have to say much. You can see it on his face, you can see it on his demeanor.”

But it wasn’t just Barkley, Hurts and Goedert. On offense, backups Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen stepped in at right tackle and right guard for Lane Johnson and Becton, respectively.

And that says nothing about the defense, which stopped the NFL’s highest-scoring team in the Saints, who came in averaging 45.5 points per game. It was only fitting that safety Reed Blankenship sealed the game with an interception with 48 seconds left.

Saints QB Derek Carr, who came into the game completing 76% of his passes and a passer rating of 142.4, went 14-for-24 for 142 yards with a touchdown and interception, and a rating of 69.1.

Star running back Alvin Kamara needed 26 carries to get 87 yards. In all, the Saints had just 219 yards of offense, nearly half their average of 405 through the first two games.

Defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, maligned along with the rest of the defensive line both for not stopping the run and for not pressuring the quarterback, did both. Carter had 4 tackles, 2 for losses, a quarterback hit and two deflections. Davis had a sack and four tackles, a tackle for loss and QB hit.

“Everybody was sick of it,” Carter said about the criticism. “They might be saying me and Jordan’s name, but they were also saying … everybody’s name. We got tired of it. We didn’t want to have it three weeks in a row. We wanted to make a big change early.”

They did, right from the start. That is, after the Saints marched most of the way down the field on the opening drive. But Carter batted down Carr’s third-down pass and New Orleans kicked a field goal.

Those were all the points through three quarters. Hurts, meanwhile, threw an interception into the end zone to start the second quarter, then lost a fumble on the next possession.

Then facing a 4th-and-1 from the Saints’ 15 with 14 seconds left, Barkley was stopped on a fake tush push. In the third quarter, the Eagles passed up a 55-yard field goal attempt, and Hurts was sacked on 4th-and-1.

Through it all, the defense kept making stops.

“Our offense, we got faith in them,” safety CJ Gardner-Johnson said. “‘Go for it! We ain’t gonna give up no points’ Go for it!’

Added Sirianni: “That’s what I thought was best for the football team in that particular case. That was my decision. I did it. It didn’t work, and we’ll get better. I’ll get better from it.” 

Then the injuries started mounting in the fourth quarter.

“I noticed as the game went on that there were some new faces in the huddle,” Hurts said. “Games like that that are gritty, and you have to overcome some things, you lean on the preparation.”

Smith suffered a concussion when he was hit after making a short catch early in the fourth quarter. On the next play, Barkley scored on a 65-yard run, when he took the ball up the middle, then outraced the Saints defense to the right corner of the end zone.

That gave the Eagles a 7-3 lead with 13:17 left in the fourth quarter. The Saints answered with a field goal.

Sirianni made another curious decision when facing 4th-and-11 from the Saints’ 42, he elected to have Jake Elliott try a 60-yard field goal with 6:41 left instead of punting and potentially pinning the Saints deep. Elliott’s kick came up short, giving the Saints took possession at midfield.

They scored the go-ahead touchdown on Carr’s 12-yard TD pass to Chris Olave with 2:03 left.

The Eagles had one last chance, and Goedert and Barkley took advantage.

“Obviously the game wasn’t going our way, but we just never gave up,” Barkley said. “We kept trusting each other, kept grinding. We saw our teammate go down with a late hit, I believe. We rallied behind that. We wanted to go out there and grind it out for Smitty. All phases, especially defense, played lights out, and we found a way to make plays at the end on offense to come out with a win.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl, on Threads and Instagram @martinfrank1.