Saquon Barkley goes full Beastquake 2.0 to take over NFC Championship Game: Best memes, tweets

Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders were methodical in driving down the field to open the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. While it may have only resulted in a Zane Gonzalez field goal, they drove 18 players and consistently found ways to stay on the field to tire out a Philly defense. Saquon Barkley, however, had a different approach.

Following the 18-play drive to open the game, the Eagles took over at their own 40-yard line after a nice return, giving Barkley and Jalen Hurts their first taste of action. Naturally, it went to their 2,000-yard rusher in the backfield.

On a fake jet sweep, Barkley bounced it to the left side of the line and found a big hole. It seemed, however, like Bobby Wagner or a host of other Commanders defenders might be able to get him down. But Wagner got caught up on a block at a bad angle. Then Quan Martin got bowled over with a weak attempt. Then Jeremy Chinn got geeked by Barkley.

It was off to the races and eventually the end zone from there.

Hard not to think Beastquake, Marshawn Lynch's iconic 2011 Wild Card Round run, when seeing something like that.

Saquon Barkley embarrassed Commanders on Eagles' first offensive play

Naturally, Eagles and NFL fans alike were in awe of the 60-yard touchdown run. The majority of the reactions were just solely of the variety of appreciating watching Barkley and hist greatness.

Others were trolling the Commanders for their inability to stop Barkley despite that being the most obvious aspect of the defensive game plan.

However, the least safe target after Barkley's dominant start was the Giants, the team that drafted him No. 2 overall but only to let him waste away on largely bad teams and then let him walk to the rival Eagles in free agency.

And it wasn't just the long touchdown run that really led to the love affair with Barkley. After a Dyami Brown fumble on Washington's second possession, it was Barkley who finally got his second carry on a goal-to-go situation and punched that in for another score.

That's two touches, two touchdowns, and 64 yards for Barkley. Not a bad stt for his first NFC Championship Game appearance ever.

Washington's run defense has been suspect for most of the season, so the Eagles using Barkley heavily always seemed likely. But even Kellen Moore and Nick Sirianni probably didn't image they would have this much of a fairytale start to conference championship Sunday.