Eagles odds and ends: It’s starting to click for Hurts, Barkley, Birds

The Eagles have won three straight, with the latest being a pretty impressive 37-17 outburst against the Bengals. 

Jalen Hurts has looked steadily better – definitely more protective of the football at the very least – Saquon Barkley is still tearing it up on the ground, and the defense has taken up a lot more space in the few weeks since rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean got put on the field together. 

The Birds are 5-2. Still trailing in the NFC East race after Washington’s miracle over the Bears last week, but staying up there and with the underachieving Jaguars on deck. Also, it’s Kelly Green week. 

Are the vibes back? Well, the air around NovaCare does seem to a bit lighter than it was at the beginning of the month. 

Here are a few odds and ends on the Birds…

Just another day on the back 9

Hurts, Barkley, and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie spent the team’s off day this week golfing over at Merion…with former president Barack Obama. 

No big deal. 

“Probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in my life,” Barkley said on Wednesday. “He was awesome, to be honest.”

Barkley said he and Hurts got the offer to play last week when Lurie and team security chief Big Dom DiSandro approached them about it.

When the day came and Barkley saw Obama at the range, he said he was frozen up by ‘How do I start this conversation? What do I want to say?’ until Obama turned around and called him over. 

The former president was very down to earth, Hurts said during his press conference on Wednesday, though not bashful to dish out some trash talk either. 

“I told him he didn’t want these problems just yet,” Hurts joked. “I can’t golf right now. It’s in my contract. I can’t golf. But his day will come.”

Barkley is a big golfer. He talked about it in training camp back in the summer, but Hurts, as he hinted at, can’t be one for the foreseeable future. 

Part of the catch of when he signed his long-term contract to be the franchise quarterback, it seems. The Eagles have to keep him protected. 

“It’s still not the time to tell the story, but yes,” Hurts said about that. “That’s a simple yes.”

Just get the points

Barkley accounted for 57 of the Eagles’ 85 yards, including a 17-yard run down to the 1, on the team’s final touchdown drive last Sunday against Cincinnati. But he didn’t get the honor of punching it in to effectively put a stamp on the game. The “Tush Push” took care of that. 

A few days removed now, the star running back said that, yeah, he does want to score, but at the same time, he’s not going to get too worked up about it. The team’s winning, and with one of the most unstoppable plays in football – one that he’s free to just enjoy now that he’s a part of it. 

Said Barkley about it on Wednesday:

“Depends on how you look at it right? Could I take the mindest of ‘Oh yeah, could I have more touchdowns?’ Yeah, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football.

“And then the core of the play is it’s just man-on-man [try to] stop us. It’s something about that. Everybody knows it’s coming, everybody knows what’s going on, and you can’t stop it. Every team can’t do it. There’s a reason why Philly’s been so good at it for the last couple of years. So I look at it more as a statement.

“When you’re on the 1-yard line or it’s 4th and 1, you know it’s coming, can you stop it? Some have success here and there, but more times than not, we’re getting the best of them, and that shows you how physical [we are] and the mindset of the team that we have. That’s what you need for successful teams.”

So take the points however they come, especially once in the red zone, when defenses are definitely zeroing in on 26. 

More from Barkley on that:

“Yeah, I mean, I want the touchdown, obviously. I’m not gonna say it and be like ‘I don’t wanna score.’ You wanna score, especially – I’ve been watching a lot of LaDainian Tomlinson highlights, and he was really good. It’s an art. I thought about it. I definitely should – that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna find a way to reach out to him, because when you get into the red zone, it’s tough. 

“Everyone knows that it’s run the ball, you’re getting the ball. It’s tighter and he was the best at it, finding ways to get in the end zone. But whether it’s me scoring or Jalen scoring, the most important thing is finding a way to win football games. With all these analytics, all this ‘You should do this, You should do that.’ I know one thing that’s 100 percent: You score more points than the other team, you’re gonna win football games.”

So in that vein, here’s an LT refresher for you: 

A new fashion statement