The New York Giants defeated the Washington Commanders, 31-19, to finish off the season sweep.
New York had looked terrible in recent weeks but one common denominator in recent years has been victories over Washington. This was an amazing all-around effort from Big Blue but the most surprising thing on the day was the Giants offense scoring three touchdowns.
In a bounce-back game for the offense, they were carried on the back of Saquon Barkley. Barkley is well deserving of the Player of the Game nomination as he did it all for New York.
The running back opened up the scoring on the day with a beautiful 24-yard touchdown reception in the back of the end zone. This would be the first first-quarter touchdown of the season for Big Blue and none sweeter than for their franchise running back to score against a division rival.
Barkley was very active through the air on the day as he recorded two catches for 57 yards and two touchdowns. For a rookie quarterback like Tommy DeVito, a safety blanket at your running back is exactly what you need. Barkley provided that and more with his receiving capabilities.
The Penn State product was also a very tough runner in the ground game. After having his first few runs total for negative yardage, Barkley was able to string together a few nice runs having him finishing with 83 yards on the ground. He was a highly efficient rusher on the day averaging 5.9 yards per carry as the Giants needed to rely on him to get the job done.
In a contract year, Barkley has now totaled 647 rushing yards and 162 receiving touchdowns in just eight games. He is averaging over 100 scrimmage yards a game proving to the league that he still has a lot of juice left.
Whether Barkley ends up in New York or not next year is still up in the air, but the Giants would definitely love to have him as he is a natural-born leader and a true playmaker.
