Saquon Barkley’s accountability is admirable but too hard on himself

Emblazoned in most of our minds forever are all of the clips and flicks NFL Films dropped of Super Bowl LIX. If you're like most Philadelphia Eagles fans, you've saved a few to your hard drive.

Maybe you've downloaded them to your phone or desktop, all of the clips of every highlight, plus much of the celebration that followed. At this point, it's hard to share a realistic number of how many times we've watched Cooper DeJean's pick-six or Jalen Hurts' final bomb to DeVonta Smith.

Saquon Barkley didn't have his best day, but he was a tremendous part of the puzzle. The Kansas City Chiefs had a plan. Barkley wasn't going to be the reason they lost.

But, he was, though. You see, Kansas City invested so much energy in limiting Barkley that everyone else ate, and that's how Jalen Hurts walked away with the Super Bowl MVP trophy.

Every captured moment from the celebration is just as much a part of the story as the game was, including that shot when Eagles Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie hugged the Offensive Player of the Year and smiled before telling him that Barkley was the "epitome of everything that he believed in".

Saquon Barkley tries to carry a burden that isn't his to shoulder alone.

It has been well over nine months since the most recent Super Bowl. Barkley is battling a tremendous war of attrition. We wondered how his body might respond to the beating it took last season.

We feared there may be some regression. After all, we've never seen anyone come close to sniffing 2,000 yards during the season that came months later. Our fears were confirmed. Let's say two seasons by the same player couldn't be any more different.

The 125.3 yards-per-game average has dipped to 62.2. He's below the NFL average, tallying 3.7 yards per rush. Six hundred eighty-four yards rushing and four TDs are the results of 185 attempts. He has also hauled in 35 receptions for 259 yards and two scores.

"We've got to do a better job of putting teams away. We didn't do that, and I definitely didn't help. Usually, obviously, last year and in other games, I was a big part of that, and I've been kind of nonexistent this year. I've gotta figure it out for the team."

Those were his words when speaking to reporters after the Eagles let a three-touchdown, 21-point lead slip away on the road vs. the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, what he's doing is admirable. As a team captain, he is shouldering the blame. He's holding himself accountable. He refuses to point fingers.

He's a class act. Despite his on-field struggles, it's impossible to ignore his exemplary off-field character. We can't let him do it, though. Yes, things could be better, but we refuse to let him take all the blame, especially when Nick Sirianni is trying to feed us stories about how the offense played its tail off. Kevin Patullo is coaching at an acceptable level.

Nope! It's not going to happen. Sorry, Mr. Barkley. We can assure that this isn't all on you, and that there is plenty of blame to go around after these past few weeks.

This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Saquon Barkley’s accountability is admirable but too hard on himself