'I let my team down,' acknowledges Saquon Barkley after Eagles' one point loss vs Falcons

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley took the blame for his team's 22-21 loss in the Monday Night Football (MNF) on September 16 against the Atlanta Falcons.

Barkley, who was the hero of Eagles' win in their season opener, dropped a crucial pass with under two minutes left in the game and it eventually proved too costly. The Eagles were at 3rd-and-3 at the Falcons' 10-yard line and Barkley dropped the ball which went out of bounds.

"I let my team down today," Barkley said following the loss. "I shouldn't have put the defense in that position. If I make the catch, the game is over."

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The Eagles then opted for a field goal to stretch their 3-point lead to six points and take the score to 21-15 in their favour.

Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins then led his team on a six-play, 70-yard drive to score the touchdown and an extra point in just about 1:05 seconds to snatch an unlikely win.

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts, however, was not critical of Barkley and said: "I trust [Barkley] every day of the week to make a play, just like everybody else. We'll be better from it. It's not a matter of expectations, it's a matter of just executing what's called. And we came up short in that moment."

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni also explained the reason for passing the ball to Barkley and said: "They were running a certain defense and were junking it up in the middle so we were trying to go around on the outside and it didn't work.

"[On] fourth-and-3 ... with them not having any timeouts, I wanted them to be down a touchdown and see if they could drive the field, and they did. Hats off to them," he added. The Eagles are now 1 and 1 from two games.