No Mas: Why Saquon wasn’t tempted to keep running vs. Packers

On January 15, 2025By Littum

No Mas: Why Saquon wasn’t tempted to keep running vs. Packers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Saquon Barkley saw nothing but green grass in front of him, a chance for a 76-yard touchdown run to put an exclamation point on the Eagles’ wild-card round victory.

Instead, he slipped for 17 yards to simply end the game.

“It wasn’t tempting,” Barkley said after Sunday’s 22-10 win over the Packers. “Situational football. No hustle. It’s first down, you win the game. Get the first down, get down. Never mind.”

“No mas” is the Eagles’ situational call in the 4-minute drill, and Barkley listened. When the Eagles are in “no mas,” it simply means that a first down wins the game; don’t try to get more. So when Barkley took a pass with 1:09 left in a two-score game and broke free, he simply decided to go down for 17 yards.

As much as it annoyed some of his teammates — the mic segment with DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown is hilarious — it just shows how unselfish Barkley really is as a player.

Had Barkley taken that run to the house, the Eagles likely would have ended up winning 29-10, and Barkley would have finished with 178 yards on 25 carries. Instead, the Eagles still won 22-10, and Barkley finished with 119. Even if Barkley didn’t score, he could have at least picked up another 20 or 30 yards.

Barkley left as many as 59 yards on the table as he chases Terrell Davis’ all-time record for rushing yards in a regular season and postseason. While Barkley sat out Week 18 and missed a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-game regular season rushing record, he still has a shot at the one Davis set in 1998 when Davis rushed for 2,476 yards in the regular season and the playoffs.

1. Terrell Davis (1998): 2,476
2. Terrell Davis (1997): 2,331
3. Eric Dickerson (1984): 2,212
4. Adrian Peterson (2012): 2,196
5. Saquon Barkley (2024): 2,124

In case you’re wondering, this year Baltimore’s Derrick Henry is 9th on the all-time list with 2,107 and is right on Barkley’s heels after Baltimore also advanced to the divisional round.

Had Barkley taken that home run, he would have been a little closer to Davis’ record.

But that slide ensured the Eagles walked away with a win and didn’t put their players back in jeopardy as they advanced to the divisional round.

Head coach Nick Sirianni praised Barkley’s play on Monday and went through several examples of situations where “no mas” has come into play before. Sirianni mentioned a Dallas Goedert play from 2021, Sydney Brown’s interception in Week 18 this year, a Bears vs. 49ers several years ago, a game from the Browns vs. Jets a few years ago, a 2021 preseason game.

It’s clear how much thought goes into all of these situations, and Sirianni was proud that Barkley simply went down.

“So it’s something we practice,” Sirianni said. “It’s something we talk about. It’s something that Saquon asked before he even went in. I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we are.’ It means getting the first one down and going down. It’s going to be a clip that we show Dallas’s and like we show all the others forever.

“You do it for the exact reasons I said. Now, when you go up by three scores at that point, it might not make a big difference. We understand that. …You don’t mess around with that kind of thing. You have a opportunity to take a knee, you take those opportunities.”

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