Saquon Barkley: Giants Know What They Need to Do to Win Sunday

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has been following the lead of head coach Brian Daboll in refusing to put the cart before the horse when it comes to any talk of the playoffs.

But at the same time, like the rest of his teammates and coaches, Barkley knows what's at stake and what it will take to ensure they accomplish their goals.

“I think we are all aware of what’s at stake and what we can accomplish. You can’t get lost in that," Barkley said this week. "I know the (Colts') record doesn’t say it, but they’ve been playing well. They have a really good defense over there. A lot of talented guys, and we got to get back to playing tight football, take care of the ball, take care of the little things, and if you look throughout the season when we do that, we put ourselves in a position to win football games.”

Daboll has drilled home the importance of taking one practice rep at a time, one day at a time. He wanted his players to clean up the mistakes that cost them last weekend's game against the Minnesota Vikings, and he wanted his coaches to sharpen their contributions in making the right calls and getting the players ready for a game which, if they win this weekend, will give them their first postseason berth since 2016.

“You don’t want to leave it to chance. The way you do that is by doing what you got to do this week. That’s it," Barkley said. "You just got to treat it like another week. One game at a time is the most important because it’s the next game on the schedule and try to do the little things, take care of the football, and go out there and try to win the game.”

Barkley, like many of his teammates, is in uncharted territory. His first four years in the league all ended with the Giants sitting home and watching the playoffs in mid-January. For the first time in his career, Barkley has the chance to further his team’s season and continue contributing to a winning team, and he's looking forward to doing his part.

“It’s stuff you dream about as a kid, playing playoff football in the National Football League," he said. "That’s something you dream about when you get drafted to the New York Giants. Obviously, the first four years, that didn’t happen, and now there’s a chance, a possibility. It’s a beautiful thing when you look at it.

"All the ups and downs, whether it’s in my career or whether it’s the organization- what we’ve been through the last couple of years. It will be special, and we will have a chance to do it. At the end of the day, we just got to take care of what we can, and that’s on Sunday.”

The Giants are now in control of their destiny. Win, and they’re in. They’ve been able to win all year long and need to continue what they do best to come out victorious once again.

One big negative that’s been floated around the NFL world is the Giants' offense's inability to put up 30+ points in a game.

The last time the Giants offense scored over 30 points was in Week 16 of the 2019 season. (They did score 34 points in Week 5 of the 2020 season, but one of those touchdowns was a pick-six by the defense.)

The offense would love to put up big points but continue to stick to what works for them rather than try to please the outside noise.

Barkley didn't seem bothered by the lack of explosiveness in the scoring department.

“That’s not our game, you know what I mean?" he said. "Obviously, would we love to score 30 or 40 points? Yeah, but that’s not it. We’ve won multiple games, obviously, without doing that. If we really wanted to get 30 points, we could have done it against the Ravens when I slid at the two-yard line. It is what it is."

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