It’s well-known that the Giants’ passing offense is less than a juggernaut given all their injuries, so it should be no surprise if they’re a little run-heavy at times.
And yet, here they stand at 6-1, coming off a game where both their stud back and their quarterback topped 100 yards, at times running plays out of the same formation for several downs in a row.
“This is every week, especially where we're at now as a team. A lot of teams will come and do different things to make sure to slow down the run game, but when that happens, guys got to step up and make plays, which they've been doing all year,” Saquon Barkley, who had 110 on the ground, said. “DJ (Daniel Jones) has been balling, all the receivers and tight ends coming in and making plays when we need them. As that continues to happen, you soften up a little bit, you can get back to just getting downhill and trusting the run.”
Jones had his first-ever 100 yard rushing day, reaching 107 with a 15-yard run late in the fourth, but that just means to him that Big Blue took advantage of opportunities.
“I don't know, but not really,” Jones said when asked if reaching 100 was meaningful. “I think it's that we took advantage of the opportunities that were there, and some of those were on the ground with my legs, so I try to do that when the opportunity is there.”
Of course, a lot of his were because Barkley was so successful on his own.
“I think that was a big piece of it. He attracts a lot of attention, rightfully so, and then some things opened up off of it,” Jones said. “I thought the offensive line did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage throughout the game and cleared some opportunities for us to make plays.”
The line played very well, as the Giants racked up 236 rushing yards, 34 more than Jones passed for – and center Jon Feliciano, at least, didn’t know both Jones and Barkley hit the century mark until told in the locker room by USA Today Network’s Art Stapleton.
“Oh for real?” Feliciano said to Stapleton. “That’s nice. It's tough on the defense."
And even tougher when, as Barkley said, the team is often doing it from behind.
“You're able to do that when Kaf (offensive coordinator Mike Kafka) and Dabs (head coach Brian Daboll) and the coaches don't give up on the run, especially when you're behind,” Barkley said. “They continue to trust it, and for us as players making it work.”
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