Giants Q&A: Giants' running game out of gas?
New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, left, catches a pass for a first down as Dallas Cowboys cornerback Anthony Brown (3) defends during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth) Credit: AP/Michael Ainsworth
What has happened to the running game that carried the Giants to seven wins in the first half of the season?
It has evaporated. Saquon Barkley, who had been jostling for the league lead in rushing yards through September and October, has been held to 61 yards on 26 carries in the last two games. In Thursday’s 28-20 loss to Dallas, he managed only 39 yards on 11 carries.
“I have to do a better job,” Barkley said. “The running game starts with the running back, so I have to do better.”
Have all of Barkley’s carries earlier this season caught up to him and slowed him down physically?
He says no. “My body feels like everyone’s does,” he said. “The NFL is a grind.”
Giants coach Brian Daboll agreed.
“Saquon is out there running hard trying to do everything he can,” he said. “We just have to do a better job collectively.”
Why did Andrew Thomas look so sluggish?
Because he was. The left tackle has been battling an illness all week, and while he fought through it to play, he certainly wasn’t at his best. That resulted in allowing two sacks to Micah Parsons in the second half, the first two he has allowed all season.
“No excuses,” Thomas said while wearing a mask in the postgame locker room. “I have to play better. I let the team down today . . . I didn’t play to the level I wanted to play at.”
What happened on the first-quarter touchdown pass to Isaiah Hodgins that was negated by a penalty?
The Giants were flagged for having an ineligible lineman too far down the field. Replays showed that right tackle Tyre Phillips was about three yards past the line of scrimmage, which took the 24-yard touchdown pass off the scoreboard. The Giants had to settle for a field goal to go ahead 3-0.
Daboll was furious about the call at the time, screaming and slamming his headset on the sideline. Asked after the game about what happened, he said: “Ask the refs.”
Was that the best catch of Darius Slayton’s career?
He wouldn’t say. “I’m sure it’s up there,” he said of his leaping 44-yard grab in the second quarter that set up the Giants’ first touchdown of the game. Slayton was down at the 1 and said he didn’t know he was as close to the end zone as he was until he got up and looked. He said he regretted not having rolled himself more toward the goal line.
Was that the best catch of the game?
Probably the best that counted. CeeDee Lamb nearly trumped it with a one-handed catch in the back of the end zone in the fourth quarter, but it was correctly ruled incomplete. He was able to get both feet in bounds, but in the process of landing the front of his second foot in the field of play, his heel grazed the end line and resulted in an incompletion. Dallas scored on the next play anyway to go ahead 28-13.
Will the Giants face the Cowboys again this season?
Not unless they do so in the playoffs, but there were some in the locker room who still want that opportunity.
Said linebacker Jihad Ward: “I hope so.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
