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Saquon Barkley didn’t expect to hear the boobirds in his first game against his former team. But his new head coach said Barkley has exceeded expectations already this year. Barkley got plenty of revenge in the Philadelphia Eagles win over the Giants, and it was summed up in one stat, according to a post on X by Giants writer Patricia Traina.
“Saquon Barkley has 187 all-purpose yards. The Giants offense? 117 total yards.”
In the 28-3 victory, Saquon Barkley made a memorable return to MetLife Stadium. He rushed for 176 yards and a touchdown.
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley reminds Giants what they had
The second pick overall by the Giants in 2018, Barkley left as a free agent after last season. He signed a three-year, $37.5 million contract in March.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll said earlier this year the NFL is different these days, according to nfl.com and Sports Illustrated.
“This is what it is every year in the NFL,” Daboll said. “You meet great people, whether it's coaches, players, staff members, and unfortunately, everybody doesn't stick together the entire time; it's not what it was 30, 40 years ago.
“I've got a tremendous amount of respect for Saquon and all the players that went to other places. It's a special group when you're going through an NFL season, you've got to go through ups and downs. Wish (Barkley) all the best — except when he is playing the Giants.”
Unfortunately for Daboll, the Giants faced some of the best Barkley has to offer in Sunday’s game. It looks particularly bad to Barkley outgain the entire Giants’ offense based on the comments of Giants co-owner John Mara to HBO Hard Knocks in the offseason via nydailynews.com.
“I mean, in a perfect world, I’d still like to have (Barkley) back, until we can prove that we can have a decent offense without him,” Mara said.
Mara, director of player personnel Tim McDonnell and other front office executives challenged the GM Joe Schoen’s intentions and conclusions at various turns in early offseason meetings.
“If we lose Saquon, right, what’s our identity going to be on offense now?” McDonnell said in a meeting. “And what’s our plan? What’s the next step of that, I guess is what I’m thinking. We’re losing a large part of our offense, our explosiveness, our touchdowns. Our quarterback, if it’s Daniel, depends on the run game.”
Schoen replied, “We’re gonna upgrade the offensive line, and you’re paying the guy $40 million. It’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back.”
Oh, well. The Giants fell to 2-5 on the season while the Eagles moved their record to 4-2.
