PHILADELPHIA — A sea of Eagles fans feverishly waved their white rally towels until Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and the rest of a high-powered offense made the upstart Commanders wave the white flag.
Barkley ran for three touchdowns while Hurts also rushed for three and threw for another Sunday as the Eagles punched their ticket to Super Bowl 59 with a 55-23 victory at Lincoln Financial Field. It was the highest scoring output ever in an NFC Championship game.
Touchdowns on eight of their first 11 possessions sent the Eagles to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. They either will draw a rematch against the three-peat-seeking Chiefs or the Bills.
The crazed fans that chanted “M-V-P” at Barkley after he scored touchdowns on his first two carries of the game — a preview of how unstoppable the offense would be — gave a full-throated “Fly Eagles Fly” serenade after his third TD put the finishing touch on the rout in the second half. Movie star and Eagles superfan Bradley Cooper belted out the words.
The rubber match between division rivals got heated after the whistle at times. It also was fitting for an All-NFC East matchup that the Giants played a contributing factor by allowing Barkley to leave in free agency and become the MVP candidate that could put the Eagles over the top.
It took 18 seconds for Barkley to erase six years of frustration with the Giants when he had a dazzling cutback run to pay dirt on the Eagles’ first offensive snap.
Barkley’s NFL record seventh rushing touchdown of 60 yards or longer this season put the Eagles in front 7-3 and was the perfect answer to the Commanders’ game-opening 18-play drive. His second touchdown left him grabbing at his right calf, though that barely slowed him down on the way to 15 carries for 118 yards.
Playing with a right knee injury that had him considering wearing a brace until kickoff, Hurts made big throws to get to 246 passing yards, spun and hopped away from sacks, and ran for the 9-yard touchdown that essentially put the game on ice with nine minutes to go in the third quarter.
Hurts’ other two touchdowns were off the infamous “Tush Push.”
The Commanders became so frustrated by the play’s invincibility that they jumped offside three consecutive times — twice with Frankie Luvu flying over the top of the offensive line — and drew a warning from the officials that a touchdown could be awarded if the delays continued.
Hurts ultimately pushed across the goal line as the Commanders reluctantly accepted their fate.
Jayden Daniels became the sixth rookie quarterback to start a conference championship game — and the sixth to lose. The greatest rookie season of all time ended with little fault to Daniels, who accounted for touchdowns with his arms and his legs but saw his teammates lose three fumbles before his interception once the game was out of reach.
As big a difference as Barkley made, A.J. Brown put down the book he was reading on the sideline as an uninvolved part of the offense earlier in the playoffs and wrote a new chapter in his season.
With second-quarter momentum briefly in favor of the Commanders, who trailed 14-12, Brown won a one-on-one matchup for a 31-yard streaking sideline catch against Marshon Lattimore on fourth-and-5.
The two trash-talking veterans were involved in an altercation in the end zone a few minutes later that left Lattimore with a penalty and Brown with the last laugh. Not only did Hurts score on that snap, but Brown caught a touchdown soon after the Commanders fumbled the ensuing kickoff.
In a matter of 65 seconds, a 14-12 lead had ballooned to 27-12 on the way to 27-15 at the half.
Playing with house money as the party crasher to the NFL’s Final Four, the Commanders gambled frequently.
Head coach Dan Quinn went for and converted three fourth downs in the first half, including a fake punt dialed up at the Commanders 31-yard line. Punter Tress Way floated a 23-yard completion.
But those bold moves only resulted in six points — two conversions happened on the Commanders’ seven-minute game-opening drive — and were not enough to overcome a slew of mistakes that included a pair of first-half turnovers and other given-away points.
Dyami Brown fumbled after a catch and Jeremy McNichols fumbled a kickoff return, and the Eagles turned both of those recoveries into touchdowns drives. Austin Ekeler failed to score a two-point conversion that could have tied the score at 14-14 and later lost a fumble.
Rookie Mike Sainristil hit Barkley out of bounds on a third-down stop, and the fresh set of red-zone downs turned into Brown’s touchdown catch against Sainristil.
The Eagles had all the points they needed by then. But they just kept coming, anyway.
