Miles Sanders moving on to NFC Championship
In a showdown of former Penn State running backs in the NFC Divisional Round, Miles Sanders and his Philadelphia Eagles got the best of Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants. Sanders out-rushed Barkley in the Eagles’ 38-7 victory on Saturday night in Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia as the Eagles moved on to the NFC Championship Game next week.
Sanders carried the football 17 times for the Eagles and rushed 90 yards. That was enough to lead all players and the team in rushing yards until just after the two-minute warning when teammate Kenneth Gainwell ripped off a 35-yard touchdown run to eclipse the 100-yard mark. Gainwell’s final college football game was played against Penn State in the 2019 Cotton Bowl. Gainwell rushed for 34 yards and accounted for 78 receiving yards for Memphis in Penn State’s Cotton Bowl victory.
Barkley finished the game with 61 rushing yards and 21 receiving yards, but the Eagles kept him out of the end zone a week after Barkley scored two touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL’s super wild card weekend.
Sanders and the Eagles will be home for next week’s NFC Championship Game. The top seed in the NFC will host the winner of Sunday’s divisional-round matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. One way or another, Sanders will be going head-to-head against more former Nittany Lions. Micah Parsons and Connor McGovern are starters for the Cowboys, and Robbie Gould and Kevin Givens play for the 49ers.
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