PHILADELPHIA -- Saquon Barkley never hides his knowledge for the history of football. A student of the game -- particularly the running back position -- Barkley sees the greatest performances in NFL history and jots them down in his memory.
Not only does Barkley believe he can replicate those performances, but surpass them and put his name amongst the all-time greats.
"Sometimes you know ... you chase greatness," a smiling Barkley said. "I want it."
Barkley broke Steve Van Buren's franchise record for rushing yards in a playoff game in the Eagles' 28-22 victory over the Rams, finishing with 205 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. Van Buren had a playoff record that stood for 76 years, rushing for 196 yards in the 1949 NFL Championship Game -- against the Rams of all teams.
"This week I looked it up. I was wondering -- I was like what is the record," Barkley said. "I saw it was 195 or 196 by him. It's weird how things work like that."
Barkley doesn't hide certain numbers the great running backs have and what he needs to etch himself into the history books. He knew only eight running games had 2,000 yards rushing before he joined the club and Eric Dickerson had the single-season rushing mark at 2,105 yards -- a record he wanted to break.
When the Eagles held Barkley out of the Week 18 finale, the running back set his sights on a new mark. Barkley saw the record for most rushing yards in a season (including playoffs) is held by Terrell Davis with 2,476 yards in 1998. Only Davis has more rushing yards in a season than Barkley (including playoffs), not only with his 1998 record amount but his 2,331 in 1997.
Barkley is third on the all-time list with 2,329 -- just 148 away from Davis' all-time mark. He has a legitimate shot of getting it, especially if the Eagles end up reaching the Super Bowl. Barkley may even pass the mark in Sunday's NFC Championship game based on how he's running the ball.
This is the way Barkley's special season is going. He just looks up a number and says he's going to get it. He did it for the Eagles' single-game rushing record (previously held by LeSean McCoy), the franchise single-game yards from scrimmage record (Duce Staley), and the franchise single-season rushing yards (McCoy) and yards from scrimmage record (McCoy).
Why not set the sights on passing one of the greatest running backs in NFL history in Van Buren, someone who rewrote the league record books himself over the course of his career? That's all Barkley is trying to do, and he's accomplishing the task.
"I felt like this week, you know, I felt I had a good game last week," Barkley said. "But you want to create a legacy and I want to have those types of games. Just visualizing stuff and wondering what the number is and it's funny how that happened."
