Barkley Hopes His Past Success vs. Eagles Rubs Off on Giants

Saquon Barkley has been successful against the Eagles in two career outings, but come Monday night, he'd like to see the Giants have some success against their NFC East rivals.

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Before the bye week, Giants running back Saquon Barkley vowed to get back to being himself.

So far, so good. Since returning from the bye rested and refreshed in letting a Week 3 high ankle sprain further heal, Barkley has rushed for 142 yards on 36 carries (3.94 yards per carry).

Does he think he is fully back?

“Yeah, I thought so,” Barkley said Thursday. “I guess in my standards it’s not really a good game, but that I broke over 100 yards, was averaging over like four yards a carry, something like that, so I feel like I’m getting back to myself.”

On Monday night, Barkley will have another opportunity to quiet any lingering doubters who still think his game is off.

In two career games against Philadelphia, Barkley has 371 scrimmage yards (185.5 per game) and three touchdowns (two rushing and one receiving).

In both of those games, Barkley recorded two of his nine career games with 100 or more rushing yards.

“Well, the first game I just was in a groove. Not really much more to say about that, but in the second game, we were able to run the ball really well, get up on them early, last year,” Barkley said in explaining what went right for him.

In that second game, the Giants went away from running the ball, thereby reducing Barkley’s opportunities, but that didn’t stop Barkley from recording 101 yards rushing.

Ankle injury aside, the Eagles see Barkley as the key to stopping the Giants offense.

“I just think he’s the focal point of their offense, so I think he gets a lot of attention,” said safety Malcolm Jenkins. 

“A lot of people have been gang tackling him, so he hasn’t had all of the explosive plays that we saw last year when it was his first year in the league, and everybody was getting used to him. But you know, he’s still, in my opinion, the toughest to tackle in the league right now at the running back position.”

Barkley knows that as his reputation for being a tough runner continues to grow league-wide, teams are going to come at him a little differently. And he’s bracing himself for the Eagles to show him some different looks.

“You can go back and watch the film on it, which I did, and see the success that I was able to have against them (last year), but it’s a new year. They’re going to attack it differently. I’ll try to have more success this year and do whatever I can to help my team win this week,” he said.

And if that means Barkley has to sacrifice his numbers against a team that so far, he’s done well against, then he’s okay with that.

“I’m not really focusing on individual stats. I don’t care if I go for 250 yards, I don’t care if I go for 50 yards, I just want to go out there and help my team win football games,” he said.

“Coming down to the home stretch of the season, got four games left, try to finish it strong as a team, and it starts with Monday Night Football in front of everyone, so try to go out there and execute better as a team and put ourselves in position to win.”