The most exciting play in football right now is the Saquon Barkley home run, and it could be the difference in this year’s Super Bowl.
You would think going into a game against Patrick Mahomes that we would be more intrigued about his cannon for an arm, but Barkley actually has nine runs longer than Mahomes’ longest pass (54 yards) this year, ripping off an NFL-record seven offensive touchdowns of 60+ yards.
Most offensive TD of 60+ yards in a season — NFL history (including playoffs)
|
Saquon Barkley (2024) |
7 |
|
Jerry Rice (1988) |
6 |
|
Jim Brown (1963) |
6 |
|
Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch (1951) |
6 |
If you include all touchdowns, Barkley is tied with Devin Hester (2007) for the most 60-yard touchdowns of any kind in a season. You might remember how Hester opened a Super Bowl nearly two decades ago:
Barkley made a house call on the Eagles’ first play on Sunday, so don’t miss the start of this game.
Barkley has three 60+ yard touchdown runs in the last two games alone. That’s more than Walter Payton had in his entire career (he had two in 199 games). It’s as many as Thurman Thomas, Edgerrin James and Eric Dickerson had in their combined careers, regular season or playoffs.
Another home run rush would be unprecedented. He is looking to become the first player in NFL history with a 60+ yard touchdown run in three straight games, regular season or playoffs.
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It’ll be a tough task considering there’s only been two touchdown runs of that length in Super Bowl history (by Marcus Allen and Willie Parker).
The Chiefs have never allowed a 60+ yard touchdown run in their postseason history and the longest rush they’ve allowed in the playoffs since 2018 is 33 yards to James Cook, last Sunday. The longest rush they allowed in last year’s Super Bowl featuring Christian McCaffrey was 11 yards.
If anyone can do it, it’s Barkley, though. He has 41 percent (seven of 17) of the league’s 60-yard touchdown runs this year.
Longest rush touchdowns this season (including playoffs)
I’m interested to see if Barkley can make another record next week, and how his home run ball will have an impact on the books, too. There’s a prop for his longest run in the Super Bowl on FanDuel of 24.5 yards.
He has a 25-yard run in 10 of his 19 games this year, but consider the Chiefs have only allowed a 25-yard run to a running back in two of their last 20 playoff games.
What to bet: The SportsLine Projection Model has taken a strong stance on Saquon Barkley’s rushing yards line of 112.5. Check out the model’s picks for all Barkley’s Super Bowl LIV props over at SportsLine.
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