New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley’s name is not on the team’s injury report this week, which is a welcome development for Big Blue.
Last week against Philadelphia, Barkley was dealing with a neck issue that limited him to playing on just 31 percent of the team’s offensive snaps.
Of course, the game script — which saw the Giants get down, 27-7, early in the third quarter — also played heavily into that decision. Barkley had come into the game playing on well over 80 percent of the team’s snaps and this mini-hiatus may actually have helped him get healthy for this Sunday’s showdown against the Washington Commanders.
“I never thought about it that way,” Barkley said laughingly when it was suggested that last week was like a ‘half-a-bye.’
“I mean, I guess I didn’t take the banging I would in a normal game. But I feel good this week; I had a really good practice (on Wednesday). I feel like I had a pretty good practice (on Thursday), not just for myself but the team. So, just excited about this week.”
The Giants will need Barkley to be at his best if they are going to pull off an upset in Washington this week. That is something he has not been over the past month.
Barkley gained 152 yards on the ground in the Giants’ first game after their bye against Houston but has fallen flat over the team’s next four games. Over the last month, he has rushed only 53 times for a total of 152 yards — an average of just 2.8 yards per attempt. He is looking for a breakout game with some signature plays to get him back on track.
“I haven’t had a big run in a long time. The last time, I guess, was against Washington. It was over 20 (yards). The last couple of weeks, the run game has been — I don’t want to say non-existent. But they’ve been doing a really good job of stopping the run game or necessarily, stopping me,” he said.
“Obviously, that’s a focal point. And that’s going to be a focal point again this week. But just got to continue to get back to that mentality of knowing that teams are going to try to stop us, but if I can get going, it’s going to help the team and it’s going to help put us in a position to win.”
The Giants are 7-5-1, tied with Washington for the final playoff spot in the NFC. After a month of flat performances, the Giants will be leaning on Barkley to drag them forward.
The Giants have lost 11 straight prime-time games, another trend they aim to reverse this week. Barkley was unaware of the skein.
“That’s a crazy stat. We lost 11 straight? Dang. I really don’t know what to say to that. It sucks, I guess,” Barkley said. “But guess what? We get an opportunity to change that. And I guess those 11 games we lost; we weren’t as successful as we were previously. We’re a successful team this year. We’re a different team this year than we were in the past. We’re getting that opportunity in another primetime game to go show that, and I feel like if we continue to trust each other, lean on each other, get that power and belief back, go out there, play for each other, anything can happen, right?”
Let’s hope.
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