Saquon Barkley on Friday scored three touchdowns to spark the Philadelphia Eagles to a 34-29 win over the Green Bay Packers in the first regular-season NFL game in South America.
Barkley, who joined the Eagles in March after six seasons with the New York Giants, ran 24 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns, and caught two passes for 23 yards and a touchdown in a landmark thriller.
“It was really important for me just to get going,” Barkley said. “I just needed that first tackle to get me going again.”
Photo: Reuters
Barkley joined Terrell Owens as the only players with three touchdowns in their Eagles debut.
The “Love Hurts” meeting saw Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love and Eagles counterpart Jalen Hurts stage a high-scoring spectacle in the historic Brazil contest, played at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena.
Hurts completed 20-of-34 passes for 278 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, while Love completed half his 34 passes for 260 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception before a late-game ankle injury.
“It was a good game, back and forth,” Eagles receiver A.J. Brown said. “A lot of things were going to go wrong because it’s the first game, but we made adjustments and it just came down to making plays.”
Hurts hurled a 67-yard touchdown pass to Brown early in the third quarter as Philadelphia grabbed a 24-19 edge.
Two third-down Eagles penalties helped sustain Green Bay’s 70-yard scoring march in response, Love flipping a 2-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson as the Packers reclaimed the lead 26-24.
Love was intercepted to set up Barkley’s 2-yard touchdown run for a 31-26 Eagles lead but Brayden Narveson kicked a 26-yard field-goal with 7 minutes, 52 seconds remaining to pull the Packers to within 31-29.
Hurts and Barkley guided a masterful march of 67 yards over 16 plays that took more than seven minutes. Jake Elliott’s 21-yard field goal boosted the Eagles’ lead and left the Packers only 27 seconds to seek the winning points.
Love threw a 33-yard pass to Jayden Reed to reach Eagles territory in the dying seconds, but sustained a left-ankle injury on the next play and Malik Willis was sacked two plays later to end the game.
LaFleur was certain missed scoring chances, such as being stopped and having to settle for three short field goals rather than scoring touchdowns, caused the loss.
“I challenged everybody. We’ve got to learn from this,” LaFleur said. “There was a lot of opportunities we didn’t capitalize on — when you do that you get beat.”
The Eagles were unhappy about missed chances as well, including wide receiver Devonte Smith, who had seven catches for 84 yards.
“We were just shooting ourselves in the foot, up and down offensively, but we just kept going,” he said. “You’re going to have sloppy games like this but it’s all how you respond to it.”
The first Friday game since 1970 in the NFL’s opening week was the first of five matchups this season in venues outside the US, including three games next month in London and a November contest in Munich, Germany.
SIBLING RIVALRY: Marc Marquez was locked in a duel with his little brother, falling behind at one point before recovering for his first season-opening victory since 2014 Six-time world champion Marc Marquez yesterday won the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix to complete a dominant debut weekend at his new Ducati Lenovo Team, having also romped to Saturday’s sprint. The Spanish great took the 26-lap grand prix by 1.732 seconds for his 63rd MotoGP victory from younger brother Alex Marquez, who is still seeking a first checkered flag, with Francesco Bagnaia third to complete an all-Ducati podium. It completed a perfect weekend for Marc Marquez, who took pole position, the sprint victory and the grand prix win for a maximum 37 points to open the 22-leg 2025 campaign. He led from
AC Milan’s slender hopes of reaching next season’s UEFA Champions League took another hit on Thursday with a 2-1 defeat at Bologna which left them eight points from Serie A’s top four. Sergio Conceicao’s team sit eighth, some way behind fourth-placed Juventus after losing an entertaining contest at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, a match which was rescheduled from October last year due to torrential rain and flooding. Swathes of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, much of which is fertile agricultural land, had been left under water following a massive autumn downpour. Dan Ndoye prodded home the decisive goal in the 82nd minute
VALUABLE POINT: Relegation-threatened Valencia snatched a thrilling 3-3 draw at CA Osasuna thanks to a remarkable backheel volley by Umar Sadiq Barcelona on Sunday secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Real Sociedad to move back top of La Liga. Aritz Elustondo’s early red card gave Hansi Flick’s side a comfortable afternoon, with Gerard Martin, Marc Casado, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski on the score sheet. Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao on Saturday to temporarily knock the Catalans from their perch, while Real Madrid, third, lost at Real Betis Balompie. Flick was able to rotate his side a little ahead of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 visit to face SL Benfica tomorrow and still move one point above Atletico. “There were a lot of things that
Former Australian motorcycle gang member-turned-golfer Ryan Peake, who served a lengthy jail term for assault, yesterday produced a “life-changing” maiden win to qualify for The Open Championship. Peake held his nerve for a one-stroke victory at the New Zealand Open, earning him a berth at the major in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in July, pending clearance to travel as a convicted criminal. The 31-year-old from Perth celebrated animatedly and was showered with champagne by friends on the 18th green of the Millbrook Resort course near Queenstown after a redemption story rarely seen in the refined sport of golf. Peake held back tears as he
RSS