Saquon Barkley: “Statistics don’t matter, the only stat that matters is winning”

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley ran for 119 yards in Sunday’s win over the Packers, but he could have run for 59 more and chose not to on his final carry of the game.

After he won the first down, Barkley went down at the Eagles’ 41-yard line, even though he had a path to the end zone and could have scored. Afterward, Barkley said he knew the first down won the game and didn’t care about anything else.

“Stats don’t matter. The only stat that matters is the win,” Barkley said. “Whether we throw for 400 yards, rush for 400 yards or win 3-0, I don’t care, to be honest. I just want to win.”

Asked if scoring a touchdown was tempting for him, Barkley said it wasn’t.

“It wasn’t tempting. Situational football,” Barkley said. “If you win the game first? Get the first one down and sit down.”

In fact, Barkley said some of his teammates were amazed he missed a chance at a touchdown on a highlight reel to end the game.

“They told me I should have taken a little more, but at the end of the day, the most important thing in the playoffs is to win and advance,” Barkley said on Fox after the game.

Winning and advancing was exactly what Barkley did.

“The most important thing is winning games,” Barkley said. “The stat line doesn’t matter. The only stat that matters is getting Ws.”