New York Giants rookie running Saquon Barkley put up an incredible performance against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night, but it was to no avail as the Giants took a 34-13 beating at the hands of the defending Super Bowl champions.
While Barkley made several highlight-reel plays en route to 229 total yards and a touchdown, that kind of stuff doesn't matter to the Giants' No. 2 pick if it comes in a loss.
“How did I feel about my performance tonight… Doesn't matter to me,” he said per the team's official transcript. “We didn't get the win. To be completely honest, don't care. As long as we get the win, I don't care if I went for however many yards or even if I went for 30 yards, if we won, if we got the win, I would be satisfied, but at the end of the day we didn't so none of that matters.”
This is a good mindset to have, but Barkley deserves credit for his play. He rushed for 130 yards, including an electric 50-yard touchdown run. He also caught nine passes for 99 yards, falling just a yard shy of becoming the first player in franchise history to record 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game.
But, again, individually dominating a game doesn't matter to him if the team isn't getting the job done.
“You really don't even know that you're dominating in a game when you're down two touchdowns, three touchdowns,” he noted. “Only thing in your mind is no matter what, if you're down by 40, if you're down by 50, 60 or whatever, you just continue to play your heart out for this team and for your brothers on the sideline, so you're not even focusing on that. I guess that's why you don't even notice it because that's just the mindset that I have.”
Barkley became the second rookie in the Super Bowl era to record 100-plus yards from scrimmage in his first six games, joining Kansas City Chiefs star Kareem Hunt. Barkley is also on pace to finish with 2,162 yards from scrimmage, which would be the most by a rookie since Eric Dickerson's 2,212 yards in 1983.
However, Barkley's heroics haven't resulted in consistent offense thanks to Eli Manning's decline and a dreadful offensive line. New York ranks 28th in scoring offense and now sits at 1-5 on the season.
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