Giants players hope to finally give fans a win at home

Giants fans have seen Saquon Barkley do a lot of remarkable things in his brief tenure with the team. As he heads into his 10th NFL game, they’ve been able to watch him break off long runs, catch passes in traffic and score touchdowns — all of the things they were promised when the Giants drafted him with the second overall pick.

But there is one thing they have not seen from him, at least not in person.

A win.

The Giants have won two games this season, both on the road, and remain in search of their first victory at MetLife Stadium, where they are 0-4. Barkley, who figures to be calling the locker room in the building home for a number of years, is itching to finally christen the space with a celebration on Sunday against the Bucs.

“That would be great, that would be big,” the rookie running back said. “Obviously, it would mean momentum for our team, getting two wins in a row. But we’ve got two [wins] this year and we haven’t gotten it done at home. It’ll be big for us to get a win at home. We definitely need it.”

Barkley said he doesn’t think a win in East Rutherford would feel any different from the ones he experienced in Houston or Santa Clara.  “A win is a win for me, no matter if it’s home or away, by 30 or by two,” he said.

But he knows that for about 82,000 fans, it would be a significant change.  So do the rest of the Giants.

“Honestly, it would be great to win a game at home for the fans,” safety Landon Collins said. “They’ve stuck with us through some difficult times, and that’s special.”

Odell Beckham Jr., who has not played in a home victory since Dec. 18, 2016, has seen what losing at home does to a fan base. While the Giants haven’t been able to beat anyone in New Jersey this season, their spectators have been trying to beat the traffic. Most recent Giants games have ended with a sizable contingent of opposing fans taking over the big gray swamp monster while the home crowd listens mournfully on car radios.

“We want to give them a win at home,” Beckham said of Giants fans. “Hopefully, they stay the entire game if we’re winning this time. That’s not something we can really worry about. I don’t care if there’s 10 people in the stands or it’s filled up. The goal is to win.”

This issue is not new. In fact, it predates Barkley and Collins and Beckham, and almost Eli Manning. Since MetLife Stadium opened in the 2010 season, the Giants have played 68 regular-season home games. They are 34-34 in those contests. A loss to the Bucs would put them below .500 at the stadium in home regular-season games for the first time ever (they have two other wins in the building, in 2011 over the Jets as the visiting team and a home playoff win over the Falcons in January 2012).

There are almost as many players on the Giants’ 53-man roster who have won games at MetLife Stadium as a visiting player (11) as have won there as members of the home team (16). And then there is coach Pat Shurmur, who had plenty of victories at MetLife as a member of the Eagles’ coaching staff but has yet to notch one in his new position with the Giants.

For the rookie class, Sunday presents an opportunity to finally taste a home-cooked victory. No trudging onto a bus and then onto a plane to celebrate.

“I’d like to get a win here in New Jersey, New York, in front of our fans,” defensive tackle B.J. Hill said. “They definitely deserve it. It’d feel good to win at home.”

The Giants’ victories have been in the two destinations on their schedule that are the farthest away from home. At those games, there was a smattering of Giants rooters, but nothing like the numbers that turn out for home games.

“If we’re at home, away, Germany, London, we’re trying to win,” Beckham said. “Whatever Giants fans are there, hopefully we get the win for them. And if we’re at home, hopefully we get it for everybody.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.