Saquon Barkley was going to run right through the Lions, right? He entered Sunday's game leading the NFL in rushing. The Lions entered Sunday's game with the NFL's second worst rushing defense. The Giants superstar was going to put another stamp on his MVP resume at Detroit's expense.
Right?
Wrong, as it turned out. Dead wrong. Barkley was bottled up by the Lions defense like he hasn't been all year, rushing 15 times for a season-low 22 yards. Even Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson had a hard time believing the numbers after Detroit's 31-18 win.
22 yards on 15 carries, he was told.
"Was it really?" Hutchinson said in his post-game interview with 97.1 The Ticket's T.J. Lang. "No way."
It really was.
"That's huge, man," said Hutchinson. "That was the point of emphasis. We thought if we could stop Saquon, we could stop the Giants, and I think we did that."
No kidding. Barkley had rushed for at least 50 yards in each of the Giants' first nine games. He was averaging 103.4 on the year, and 4.7 per carry. The Lions had allowed at least 80 rushing yards in each of their first nine games. They were allowing an average of 160.8 on the year, and 5.3 per carry. Then they turned around and stopped Barkley in his tracks.
"I feel like we didn't really (allow) too many explosive runs, which if you watch some of our games, they get out a little bit sometimes," Hutchinson said. "But I thought we really contained them well and we were pretty sound in the run game."
It started up front with nose tackles Alim McNeill and Isaiah Buggs, who swallowed Barkley's lanes up the middle. McNeill was especially impressive, finishing with three tackles for loss. Hutchinson and his fellow defensive ends were committed to setting the edge, which allowed the linebackers to swarm to the ball before Barkley could ever get going.
"We knew he was the key," said Dan Campbell. "We could not let him get going, because everything they do runs through him. That was the main focus of our defense this week and they performed it perfectly."
It was a team effort to stop one of the most explosive players in the NFL, and the highlight of the Lions' best defensive performance of the season. Not to overlook Hutchinson's second interception of the season, one of Detroit's two picks of Daniel Jones who hadn't been picked off in six games.
"Turnovers are huge in this league," said Hutchinson. "It's something that I'm starting to realize. All these games are tight and most of the time it comes down to who wins that turnover battle and who has more possessions and putting your team in better positions to score, and we won it today, man."
It was the Lions' third win in a row, matching their longest streak in five years. They were 1-6 last month. Now they head into a Thanksgiving clash with the Bills within striking distance of a playoff spot.
"Honestly, I just think we're playing more together. And not just defensively, as a team," Hutchinson said. "We came together, talked it out and got real with each other. I think that was the change, because this is a big change. It looked like we were going to be on par for a losing season and now we're on a three game-win streak."
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