Playing sparingly against Eagles has Saquon Barkley ready for Washington
Giants running back Saquon Barkley reacts during the second quarter against the Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday. Credit: Brad Penner
It was a game-time decision by the medical staff that allowed Saquon Barkley to start on Sunday.
It was an in-game decision by the coaching staff to pull him before the game was over.
Barkley, who injured his neck in practice during the week, played only 20 snaps in the Giants’ 48-22 loss to the Eagles. He was on the field for only six plays in the second half and none in the final 20:40 of the game. By the time he left, Philadelphia was ahead 34-14.
While Brian Daboll insisted he was not looking ahead to next week’s all-important game against Washington when he ended Barkley’s day prematurely, at the very least, it was a silver lining to an otherwise cloudy day that he was used sparingly and appeared to come out of the contest without further damage to his neck.
“I just wanted to make sure we weren’t overloading him,” Daboll said.
Washington had a bye this weekend. Barkley came close to having one himself.
“I came out of the game pretty well,” he said. “I’m obviously disappointed in the outcome but should be good.”
Barkley finished with only nine carries for 28 yards and two catches for 20, so it’s not as if he was on his way to a breakout performance. He hasn’t rushed for more than 63 yards in a game since Nov. 13, not coincidentally the last time the Giants won. This was the first game this season that Barkley did not lead the Giants in rushing yards; backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor managed 40 while scrambling around in the fourth quarter. At that point, Daniel Jones also had been yanked from the already-decided-but-not-completed contest.
“Coach kind of told me they would go with GB [Gary Brightwell] and [Matt] Breida,” Barkley said. “I just tried to be a good teammate and be supportive . . . Obviously, I would have loved to play a lot more. The reason why I didn’t play as much was not because of my neck. The Eagles played great.”
Barkley offered little insight into what happened to his neck. He said he caught a pass in practice and turned quickly, apparently wrenching something. It was not related to the shoulder sprain he suffered and played through earlier this season, he said, and it did not occur because of contact with a teammate in the workout.
It was, however, serious enough to put Barkley’s availability for this game in doubt. It wasn’t until he arrived at MetLife Stadium on Sunday morning and went through an examination with the doctors that he was cleared to play.
“It was kind of up to the last minute,” Barkley said. “The only thing I did was just continue to rehab it all week and trust the doctors, trust the trainers, and they kept telling me if it keeps getting better, I’ll get a shot and get a chance [to play]. I woke up [Sunday] morning and I felt like I was ready to go and the doctor agreed with me that I was good to go.”
Barkley was on the field long enough to take one good hit from Eagles lineman Fletcher Cox.
“It wasn’t anything crazy,’’ Barkley said. “Good run, I landed, got four or five yards, came out the game for a play or two as part of the rotation, and that was it.”
While the Giants used a rotation even when Barkley was playing, Daboll said there was no expressed “pitch count” for Barkley, who said he could have played more than the 20 reps he got in the game.
“I was ready to go, but obviously the game plan and just the way the game played out, that wasn’t the case,” Barkley said.
If it helps at all to make him even a little bit more physically ready to play Washington, it will have been worth it.
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.
