How the Rams plan to limit the big-play ability of Eagles RB Saquon Barkley

Eric Williams

NFL Reporter

The only Pro Bowler on defense for the Los Angeles Rams, Jared Verse acknowledged that he could have played better in his team’s 37-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12 at SoFi Stadium.

Specifically, the rookie edge rusher didn’t consistently stay in his gap to stop explosive running plays.

“I put us in a bad hole in a lot of positions,” Verse said after the game. “I didn’t put my DBs in a good position when I was rushing. A couple times, I took the inside because I felt it was open when I’ve got to stay on the edge. As a whole, I feel like we could’ve done better.”

Saquon Barkley posted a historic performance against the Rams that day, rushing for a career-high 255 yards. In the second half alone, he rumbled for 182 rushing yards, including touchdown runs of 70 and 72 yards. Barkley became just the sixth player in NFL history to record multiple rushing TDs of 70-or-more yards in a single game. Philadelphia’s 314 total rushing yards against the Rams were the second-most by any team this season.

And even at SoFi in L.A., the boisterous Philly faithful let the Rams hear about it.

“I hate Eagles fans,” Verse told The Los Angeles Times this week. “They’re so annoying. I hate Eagles fans.

“When I see that green and white, I hate it. I actually get upset. Like I actually genuinely get hot.”

With the two teams set to meet again in the NFC divisional round on Sunday, this time at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field, the obvious question is: Can Verse and L.A.’s young defense figure out how to contain the best back in the league?

“If you can’t stop the run, it’s very difficult,” Rams safety Quentin Lake said. “We just need to eliminate the explosive plays, eliminate the explosive runs, and we’ll be OK.”

Since Barkley’s jaw-dropping performance, L.A.’s defense has done just that. In their last seven games of the regular season, the Rams held teams to 104 rushing yards a game. They won six of those games, with the only loss a 30-25 setback to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 18, a game in which most of L.A.’s starters did not play.

Last week in their 27-9 wild-card win over Minnesota, the Rams held the Vikings to 106 yards rushing.

Of course, Barkley and the Eagles pose an entirely different challenge.

“There are ways that you have to be able to change up looks, because if they get a beat on what you’re doing and you just sit in the same front structures, they will pound you, and they will embarrass you,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.

Should the Eagles fear the Rams in their divisional round matchup?

It’s not as simple as the Rams putting more and bigger bodies near the line of scrimmage to slow down Barkley. They also must deal with one of the best running quarterbacks in the league in Jalen Hurts, who rushed for 630 yards during the regular season. According to FOX Sports Research, Hurts tops among all NFL QBs with 64 rushing first downs and 14 rushing touchdowns this season, including the playoffs.

Add in defending one of the best receivers in the league in A.J. Brown on the perimeter, and it’s a tough task for first-year Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula.

On Sunday, the Rams defense will focus on early downs to try to get into more favorable situations on third down. In Week 12, the Eagles were 9-of-15 on third down because they had manageable distances to move the chains, not allowing the Rams to heat up their potent pass rush.

“They were in third downs a decent amount of times, and it was a third and favorable,” Shula said. “So, obviously, you don’t want to be in that third-and-4-to-5 range where the odds are obviously tilted a little more against you.

“You need to find a way to get … them off track, get them into second-and-longs where you get those third-and-longs, and you can earn the right to rush the passer.”

Regarding their pass rush, the Rams could play it a little more conservatively on Sunday. Overall this season, they blitzed 24.7% of the time, the ninth-lowest rate in the league and L.A.’s lowest since 2018. However, in the Week 12 matchup against Philadelphia, the Rams blitzed Hurts on 34.6% of his dropbacks, their fourth-highest rate in a game in 2024.

The results were not great. Hurts finished 6-of-9 for 96 yards when blitzed in that game. He also rushed 12 times for 39 yards.

“A lot of the things that really hurt us were things that we did to ourselves,” Rams defensive tackle Kobie Turner said. “Different ways where we’re jumping out of our gaps and we should be more gap sound. Or we’re creating vertical seams and allowing 26 [Barkley] to go find vertical creases.

“At the end of the day, we know so many of these things come down to what we can control. And we know that we’re attacking everything that we can control so that we come out with a victory on Sunday.”

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.

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