Saquon Barkley is the best football player ever. That’s it. Ballgame. See you Sunday. 1. I’ll get to Saquon in a second, but this win is such a character win and really shows what this team is all about. So much went wrong. Missed opportunities. Blown chances. Dropped passes. Stupid penalties. Missed PATs. Bad decisions. Just one thing after another. You name it. But the one thing this team kept doing was fighting and battling, and that lethal combination of Saquon Barkley big plays and ferocious defense added up to a 28-22 win over the Rams in their conference semifinal playoff game and a meeting with the Commanders at the Linc Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. Whew. You have to love a team that can overcome adversity like this one, especially in must-win games in the playoffs. At this point, you take the W. But let’s be honest. This team is capable of so much more, of playing so much better. Still, they found a way. They keep finding a way. Great teams do. 2. Saquon Barkley. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a single player that’s meant as much to the Eagles as No. 26 has this year. Maybe Randall Cunningham in 1990. Without him, this is a good team. With him, they’re one more home win away from the Super Bowl. He does things that simply defy belief. On top of 255 yards in the first Rams game, Saquon ran 26 times for a franchise postseason-record 205 yards and touchdowns of 62 yards in the first quarter and 70 yards in the second quarter. He’s simply unstoppable. In the middle quarters, it was tough sledding for the running game and it got worse as the conditions got worse. But I love that even when that running game dries up Kellen Moore keeps dialing it up because he knows that eventually he’s going to bust a big one. We’ve seen coaches around here who haven’t done that. Where would this team be without him? Definitely not playing the Commanders next week. 3. It’s easy to say the Eagles don’t really need a high-powered passing game because of their running game and defense. But once again the passing game was just not good enough . It’s great that Jalen Hurts isn’t turning the ball over, but he just hasn’t looked comfortable since he came back from his concussion. He’s not throwing with confidence, he’s standing in the pocket way too long, he’s taking way too many sacks and he just doesn’t look right. Let’s go deeper: Hurts had 11 completions of at least 35 yards in his first 10 games this year and none in his last seven games. He dropped back 27 times and was sacked seven times, which is ridiculous. He got sacked more than a quarter of the time he dropped back. Including a ridiculous sack. Now, A.J. Brown dropped what would have been a 35-yarder down to the 2-yard-line just before halftime Sunday. And obviously by the middle of the second half the conditions had deteriorated to the point where nobody was going to be throwing down the field and Hurts also looked hobbled at that point.  But the bottom line is this offense has too many talented people across the board for the passing offense to be this punchless against a bottom-10 defense. They’ve got to be better. Hurts has to be better. 4. Nolan Smith is a flat-out beast and with Brandon Graham out for the year, Josh Sweat with just one sack in his last seven games and Bryce Huff a complete failure so far, the Eagles have desperately needed his production. And Smith just keeps coming up huge. He had two sacks last week against Jordan Love and a huge one in the fourth quarter Sunday, forcing a Matt Stafford fumble inside the Rams’ 40-yard-line that Zack Baun recovered, and the Eagles got a big field goal out of it. Smith has to be one of the most improved defensive players in the league, going from a non-factor last year to a ferocious playmaker on the best defense in the league. He plays like a maniac every play. In two playoff games, he’s got three sacks, three tackles for loss, two hurries, a forced fumble and two quarterback hits. He’s playing at such a high level right now and it’s fun to watch. More coming …