The Rushing Record, Week 18 MVP Chase, and Pro Bowl

Will Saquon hold on to his lead?

Saquon Barkley is 100 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record, set in a 16-game season 40 years ago. Because the Eagles have to play in the first week of the playoffs, however, Barkley is going to sit out the last game of the season.

It’s just as well. Unless a running back shatters records, with yards-per-game similar to O.J. Simpson’s 2003 yards in a 14-game regular season, records don’t matter much. In Barkley’s case, the irony is that he dropped a pass near the end of a Week 3 game that led to an Eagles loss, preventing the Eagles from contending for the #1 seed in Week 18.

If the Eagles had something to play for, Barkley would be playing and might have gotten the record. The decision to throw the pass that Barkley dropped reflected poor clock management by head coach Nick Sirianni because a running play was a safer decision for running down the clock in that situation; while Barkley shouldn’t have dropped the pass, the likelihood of dropping a pass is greater than Barkley fumbling on a running play. That’s just the nature of the game.

Nevertheless, Barkley had a great year, and by sitting, his status as the MVP Chase leader is in jeopardy. The way the MVP Chase formula works, four players can…