Eagles 34, Packers 29: Saquon Barkley's hat trick in franchise debut dazzles crowd in Brazil futbol stadium

SÃO PAULO — Saquon Barkley reclined in a chair next to Dom DiSandro in an auditorium in the bowels of Corinthians Arena. He listened to Nick Sirianni praise him while fiddling through his phone and basking in his new reality. Barkley sat on a flight for 10 hours for the Eagles’ 34-29 season-opening win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. He waited an entire summer before wearing his new uniform in a game. It took him until his seventh NFL season to play in an offense like this one.

He introduced himself with a three-touchdown performance — joining Terrell Owens as high-profile Eagles with a trio of scores in their debuts.

“I think a hat trick is never a bad thing,” said Barkley, playing to the Brazilian audience. “There is so much that I can do, and that’s the kind of player that I am.”

The Eagles realize as much. Barkley heard Sirianni discuss what he’ll remember most about the Eagles’ trip to Brazil. The coach spoke about the way the Eagles won the game — spend the better part of eight months hearing about a late-season collapse, and you’re permitted to savor a close victory — but he also nodded to his star running back in the corner of the room. Barkley caught the first touchdown of the game (a toe-tapping 19-yarder) and Sirianni sprinted down the sideline to celebrate.

“So I’ll remember that as well,” Sirianni said.

This was a historic game for the Eagles. It was the first game played on South American soil. It came on a Friday night, atypical for an NFL matchup. It started an anticipated season. But the memories of the spectacular soccer stadium or the fans joining together for the wave and singing Brazilian music represent the pageantry of the game. It doesn’t represent the significance.

For the Eagles-adoring crowd less invested in football’s international expansion and more concerned about expanding the trophy case, they might remember the way Barkley played. He rushed 24 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns and caught two passes for 23 yards and a score. It was the type of performance Howie Roseman envisioned when breaking recent convention to sign Barkley. One game doesn’t justify a three-year, $37.5-million contract, but it shows why the Eagles viewed him as an exception.

“I want to be special. I want to be special in this offense, special for this team, give Philly somebody they can be proud about,” Barkley said. “I think they’ll be happy with the start being 1-0.”

He’s from the area. He should know better than that. There’s always much to pick apart — especially when the Eagles started sloppy on offense, committed three turnovers, and the defense was suspectable to explosive plays. You wouldn’t know it from the postgame locker room.

Once Sirianni finished speaking to the team, the music pulsated through the cavernous Corinthians locker room. It was almost as loud as Sirianni’s speech. The first choice was Birds by Migos — not quite sparking Brazilian Samba, but an earned soundtrack for a celebration.

If there was any consternation back home, it was of no concern while the Eagles were in Brazil. They beat a Super Bowl contender, showing the type of offensive firepower that puts them in conversations for one of the last teams standing while still leaving enough meat on the Picanha to know they can play better than Friday.

“It’s not easy to win football games in the NFL, especially when you travel ten hours,” Sirianni said. “I know the Packers traveled ten hours, too. It was a good, good win against a good, good opponent. …What I’m really proud about is it was sloppy, it was definitely sloppy, and both sides, there were things on both sides that looked sloppy. But we were able as a football team to persevere through some dark moments, right? There was going to be some good stuff that happened in that game, some bad stuff that happened in that game, and our guys just kept coming back.

“…We’re not going to be prisoners to — basically what I’m going to say is we’re going to enjoy this journey and not let anybody tell us that wasn’t good enough. We won the football game. We have things to clean up. We know we put ourselves in the right position the way we prepared and are going to prepare our asses off again going into the next week.”

Atop the list of reasons for optimism about the Eagles this season was an elite group of skill players — perhaps the best in franchise history — and that was evident on Friday. In addition to Barkley’s standout performance, A.J. Brown finished with five catches for 119 yards and a touchdown and DeVonta Smith totaled seven catches for 84 yards, including two clutch first downs on a drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock late in the fourth quarter to preserve the Eagles’ lead.

“I mean, on the scouting report I’m probably not even top three you’ve got to worry about,” Barkley said. “Makes my job a lot easier.”

He might be in the top three, but his point is well-founded. This was the way the offense was designed — to accentuate the stars. (Minus the turnovers and sloppiness, Smith added.)

“‘It’s always good to get the passing game and running game going,” Smith said. “When you do that, you’re hard to beat.”

The most important star is Jalen Hurts, though, and the Eagles need the franchise quarterback to play better than he did. He started the game as badly as it could go — after no turnovers through 15 training camp practices, he threw an interception and lost a fumble on the first two possessions — and there was a second-half interception that was most head-scratching of all. There were problems with the quarterback-center exchanges, which is important to monitor considering Cam Jurgens is replacing Jason Kelce. But his touchdown pass to Barkley was a well-placed ball, and his connection with Smith in the fourth quarter helped keep the clock ticking. On Brown’s touchdown, Hurts spotted the Brown double-move from the break.

“Talking about the turnover battle, how important it is,” Hurts said. “It really doesn’t happen the way it happened today, as many balls that were on the ground, as many turnovers that I had, finding a way to win the game. Those are things that I’ll learn from, we’ll learn from, address those things.”

Let those lessons come from a 34-point game. Consider this: the Eagles turned the ball over three times, including in scoring distance, and their scoring output still would have been the third-most in 2023.

Those who could still improve include Barkley, who struggled with footing on the slippery turf early in the game and was stopped short of his fourth touchdown in the game’s waning minutes.

“He played really well tonight,” Brown said. “Should have had four touchdowns, and I told him.”

There would have been a name for that in Brazil, too.

“What we call in soccer, you almost did a poker,” Barkley was told by a Brazilian reporter.

Barkley held four fingers up to ask for affirmation. In this offense, it’s not out of the question that he could reach that mark. 

“Today might have been my day scoring touchdowns, it was never no hate (from teammate), no none of that. It was like, ‘Go ahead, go get four’,” Barkley said. “That’s what you need with a team like this that has so many stars.”

Note: More to come from the postgame locker room and the Brazil trip later this weekend.