Giants' Saquon Barkley learned from the past to stay within himself
Saquon Barkley of the Giants runs the ball after a reception during the second quarter against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It’s funny how life lessons work sometimes. Just ask Saquon Barkley.
He remembers all of this as if it were yesterday.
After the 2020 season opener, Barkley was ticked off at himself. He had rushed for 15 yards on six carries in a 26-16 loss to the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
He vowed to do more.
The next game came six days later in Chicago on Sept. 20, 2020. In that matchup against the Bears, Barkley tore his right ACL on a play in which Chicago safety Eddie Jackson made a run-of-the-mill tackle.
That sequence cost Barkley the rest of his third NFL season.
Now Barkley blames himself for the injury. He was trying to erase the Steelers game, but he was doing too much.
“It was [because of] where my mindset was,” Barkley told Newsday this past week. “I came into the game wanting to rush for this many yards. I was practicing hard. I always practice hard, but that was [particularly] hard. I was squatting hard in the weight room.”
Barkley said the memory disgusted him.
“You go out there and play the game because you love it,” he said. “My thought process wasn’t there. I just wanted to go crazy and have a [big] game so I could come back and say what I wanted to the media. I wanted my play to do the talking, but in an arrogant way. That’s not my makeup. That’s not who I am. I’ll never let myself get to that again.”
He shook his head.
“I wanted to be a superhero and make all these plays,” Barkley said. “And I ended up tearing my ACL.”
That experience left a scar. And a mark. And it was why Barkley answered in the negative this past week when asked if he would “put the team on his back” with the Giants needing a win.
“I just won’t allow myself to get caught up in that again,” he said. “So I came in like my usual self, got my body worked on, came in here and got my workout in, and went to film and practiced hard to try to be the player I can for my team and the leader I can for my team.”
That is a sentiment that teammate Sterling Shepard, who has dealt with his share of injuries, understood.
“I think the way [Saquon] viewed it is the way he viewed it. But with all my injuries, I was doing everything the way I had always done everything, and sometimes that’s part of the game and it happens,” Shepard said. “I feel what he’s saying about being where your feet are and not looking to do anything extra because of what happened the week before. You have to move on from it and just play the game that’s being played that day.”
That will be the goal in Arizona for Barkley, Shepard and all their teammates.
The Giants need a win over the Cardinals, especially with a formidable second West Coast team on deck — the 49ers on Thursday night.
Said coach Brian Daboll: “I think every week is the same for me. You’ve got to go out there, do the things you need to do during the week to try to put the best possible performance you can on the field. That’s the National Football League, that’s an every-week thing.
“It’s always competitive. There’s always a lot of work that needs to be done, and I think consistency in approach and how you handle things is important in a leadership role. But certainly you’re excited every week to have an opportunity to go out there and play at your best and coach at your best.”
On their opening series last week, the Giants drove down the field, only to have their field-goal attempt blocked and returned for a touchdown. They never were a threat to Dallas after that.
“That’s it. That’s on us,” Barkley said. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding and we didn’t do that. That’s how games like that get out of hand, especially against a really good team. That’s any team in the NFL, to be honest.”
The Cardinals, led by former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, could be well-versed in what the Giants like to do.
“There’s going to be times in this game where we’ve got to stop the bleeding,” Barkley said. “And that’s on us, the players, to make those plays, and hopefully we’re able to do that this week.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
