SAO PAULO: Saquon Barkley scored three touchdowns to spark the Philadelphia Eagles over Green Bay 34-29 on Friday in the first regular-season NFL game in South America. Barkley, who joined the Eagles in March after six seasons with the rival New York Giants, ran 24 times for 109 yards and two touchdowns and caught two passes for 23 yards and a touchdown in a landmark thriller. “It was really important for me just to get going,” Barkley said. “I just needed that first tackle to get me going again.”

Barkley joined Terrell Owens as the only players with three touchdowns in their Eagles debut. The “Love Hurts” meeting saw Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love and Eagles counterpart Jalen Hurts stage a high-scoring spectacle in the historic Brazil contest, played in Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena. Hurts completed 20-of-34 passes for 278 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions while Love completed half his 34 passes for 260 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception before a late-game ankle injury.

“It was a good game, back and forth,” Eagles receiver AJ Brown said. “A lot of things were going to go wrong because it’s the first game but we made adjustments and it just came down to making plays.” Hurts hurled a 67-yard touchdown pass to Brown early in the third quarter as Philadelphia grabbed a 24-19 edge.

Two third-down Eagles penalties helped sustain Green Bay’s 70-yard scoring march in response, Love flipping a 2-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson as the Packers reclaimed the lead 26-24. Love was intercepted to set up Barkley’s 2-yard touchdown run for a 31-26 Eagles edge but Brayden Narveson kicked a 26-yard field goal with 7:52 remaining to pull the Packers within 31-29. Hurts and Barkley guided a masterful march of 67 yards over 16 plays that took more than seven minutes. Jake Elliott’s 21-yard field goal boosted the Eagles lead and left the Packers only 27 seconds to seek the winning points.

Love threw a 33-yard pass to Jayden Reed to reach Eagles territory in the dying seconds but suffered a left ankle injury on the next play and Malik Willis was sacked two plays later to end the game. Asked about the severity of Love’s injury, Packers coach Matt LaFleur replied, “I don’t know.” LaFleur was certain missed scoring chances, such as being stopped for three short field goals rather than scoring touchdowns, caused the loss. “I challenged everybody. We’ve got to learn from this,” LaFleur said. “There was a lot of opportunities we didn’t capitalize on when you do that you get beat.”

The Eagles were unhappy about missed chances as well, even Devonte Smith, who had seven catches for 84 yards. “We were just shooting ourselves in the foot, up and down offensively, but we just kept going,” he said. “You’re going to have sloppy games like this but it’s all how you respond to it.” The first Friday game since 1970 in the NFL’s opening week was the first of five matchups outside US venues, including three October games in London and a November contest in Munich, Germany.

Hurts woeful then solid

Hurts lost a fumble and was intercepted on the first two Eagles possessions but Green Bay only managed field goals from golden opportunities. Hurts responded by marching the Eagles 70 yards in 11 plays and capped the scoring drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Barkley, making the catch over a defender to give Philadelphia a 7-6 edge. “I fought through contact and Jalen gave me a good ball,” Barkley said. — AFP