The Philadelphia Eagles avoided a second-half collapse, and defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-23 in Week 9 of the NFL season. While the Eagles were able to escape with a win thanks in large part to another masterful outing from Saquon Barkley, the controversial fumble call on Barkley in the third quarter was nearly their undoing. The NFL has provided a better explanation, aiming to clarify the decision that led to a Jaguars touchdown that cut the Eagles' lead to 22-16.
Pool reporter interviewed Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth, who had this to say on the matter, per Tom Pelissero on X, formerly Twitter.
“It was deemed a stumble on the field, so because it was a stumble, when he went down, he would not be down by contact and therefore it was a fumble,” Butterworth said in response to Berman's question.
Barkley, who spearheaded the Eagles offense with 30 touches for 199 yards and two touchdowns, gave the Eagles a 16-0 halftime cushion. Questionable decisions from head coach Nick Sirianni and the rest of the coaching staff ultimately left points on the board for the Eagles, that they wound up needing when things took a negative turn in the second half.
Eagles avoid a disaster following Saquon Barkley's fumble
Jalen Hurts continued his streak of great performances, and executed the game plan from start to finish. The Eagles were driving once again before Barkley carried the ball on the fumble play. He ran over five yards when he slid to the ground and the ball popped out. Barkley didn't have much debate over the call, highlighting that he's been through it before.
“I knew it was going to be a fumble,” Barkley said, per Dave Zangaro of Yahoo Sports. “It happened to me last year. That’s why it stings even more. You don’t let it sting in the moment but it stings even more because you have to learn from your mistakes and it happened to me last year against Green Bay.
“That’s one of those plays, they called it a fumble, I knew it was going to stand. I’ve got to do a better job of getting up and bringing him down. I tried but didn’t wrap up. So go back to the fundamentals there and do a better job of taking care of the ball.”
Whether or not it was actually a fumble is going to be left for speculation by the fans, but the NFL should continue to review these occurrences to narrow down what actually classifies a player as down by contact. The ruling still appears to have inconsistencies.
Nonetheless, the Eagles improve to 6-2, as they continue to push for the NFC East crown.
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