Saquon Barkley claims that the Philadelphia Eagles winning is his main priority over personal records after he was denied the chance to break the NFL rushing record last week.

The Eagles running back has been a breath of fresh air in the NFC East this season, rushing for over 2,000 yards and 13 touchdowns across all 16 games he played. Barkley could have broken the record for most rushing yards in a single season had he played against his former team, the New York Giants.

However, the 27-year-old told reporters previously that he had a “bigger goal in mind” as head coach Nick Sirianni made the decision to rest him in the final week of the regular season. Barkley said: “Coach asked me what I’d like to do. We had a conversation. He called me back and let me know that we were probably going to be resting.

“My reaction was kinda like—I told my family, obviously my family probably wanted [the record] a little bit more than me—but at the end of the day the most important thing is winning football games and winning in the playoffs. I’ve got a bigger goal in mind anyway.”

Now, after the Eagles’ Wildcard win over the Green Bay Packers, which they triumphed with a 22-10 win, it looks like resting the stellar athlete was the correct decision. Barkley scored two touchdowns in the playoff game, running for 119 yards, and became Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game with his performance.

When Brady asked if Barkley’s rushing yards were meaningful after he decided to slide at the end of the game instead of continuing straight through for a touchdown, the running back was frank about his feelings.

Barkley said: “I mean, I can’t break the record now, right? The most important thing is winning games and it was a nomad situation – AJ and Smitty kind of gave me c—, I definitely left someone a bone. But at the end of the day, the stat line doesn’t matter, the only stat line that matters is getting dubs and advancing.”

Brady probed more about the decision to rest the Eagles star the week before, and he confessed that Sirianni making the decision was “easy” for him. Barkley said: “No I mean, it kind of made it easy on me. The coach made the decision for me. Obviously I wanted to go for the team and go for the win, but at the end of the day the most important thing is advancing and winning playoff football games.

“I feel like we were fresh, we came out a little sluggish from sitting out that game but we got things going. Our defense balled out for us and we got the win.” His comments showed that he is a true team player with the maturity to accept tough decisions with grace.

With all but one Wildcard game played, the Eagles will need to wait until the conclusion of the Los Angeles Rams vs Minnesota Vikings game before they find out who they will be playing in the Divisional round next week.