The first seven weeks of the NFL season haven't exactly been the most pleasant for Eagles fans.
Prior to their second meeting with the rival Giants, Philly hadn't really put together 60 minutes of winning football. They had shown glaring weaknesses and causes for concern, even in their victories. But finally, things clicked a bit Sunday in a 38-20 win over New York.
One of the key catalysts for their success during 2024's Super Bowl run looked fully intact, while another looked a little worrisome. Still, the Eagles led, and won, wire to wire in Week 8 to improve to 6-2.
Let's dive right into this week's stock watch:
Stock up: Saquon Barkley 📈
Perhaps he's not washed?
After averaging 5.8 yards per carry last year, the reigning offensive player of the year had been totally bottled up this season, running for 3.3 yards per rush through seven games.
Is it his age catching up to him? Has he had too many reps and taken too many hits? Is the offensive line taking a real and costly step back?
Barkley finally broke a big one, a 65-yard touchdown sprint reminiscent of the routine eye-popping plays he made during his record-breaking 2024 season. The 28-year-old entered Week 8 with an 18-yard run as his longest of the year. He had a ridiculous seven runs of 40 or more yards in 2024 as part of his 2,005-yard regular season. He might be back:
See ya, @saquon 👋 pic.twitter.com/9bjActkYiR
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 26, 2025
As if his burst on the ground game wasn't enough, Barkley caught four passes for 24 yards as well, a huge boost for an offense operating without top wideout A.J. Brown, out with a hamstring injury. The big showing on the ground was even more impressive with Cam Jurgens also sidelined. Barkley's second catch found pay dirt, putting the Birds up 14-7 early in the second.
Barkley even provided a late-game gut punch with a 28-yard run to close the third. He had 150 yards, by far the highest total of the year and a significantly good sign for the Eagles as they look to get healthy with 14 days off before Week 10. It's worth noting that the running back left with a groin injury after 14 carries.
A minor shout to Tank Bigbsy, who did a pretty good Barkley impression himself, running nine times for 104 yards in some limited (and mostly garbage-time) action.
Stock down 📉: The defense*
*They won by 18 points, we had to be nitpicky.
Don't let their 13 points allowed in Week 8 fool you — the Eagles defense isn't good.
It's not the worst we've ever seen in this city, but with a DVOA ranking 17th of 32 NFL teams entering Sunday, it's clear that this season offense is going to have to carry things. A look at some numbers through their first seven games:
| Category | Stat | NFL Rank |
| Defensive DVOA | -1.9% | 17th |
| Points allowed | 23.6 pg | 20th |
| Yards allowed | 329 pg | 23rd |
| Yards per rush | 4.6 | 24th |
| Sacks | 11 | 28th |
| 3rd downs against | 43% | 26th |
The offense did it all Sunday, scoring a season-high 38 points and running for a season-high 278 yards, though the defense continued to bend and not break as the Eagles were able to preserve a much-needed victory, marching to their bye week.
The tackling is still eh. The pass rush is nearly very often non-existent. Sunday, multiple defenders seemingly had Giants quarterback Jaxon Dart dead to rights multiple times, and then let him run out of it. They had five sacks — it should have been twice as many. It's a theme, all year, teams have been able to improvise and extend plays against the Eagles — you can see from their bottom six third down defense ranking.
The Giants carved up Philly's third-down defense, converting on 5 of their first 10 tries before garbage time. They also failed to create a turnover for just the third time this season. That might be okay against the two-win Giants, but when the competition gets better in the coming weeks with the Packers, Lions and Cowboys on the docket for their next three games, it could lead to some ugly results.
Even spotted a 14-point lead late in the third quarter, the defense wasn't able to hold strong and let New York collect three points in a field goal to keep it a competitive game. They also surrendered a meaningless touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, a long 65-yard drive with mostly backups manning the field.
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