Giants' Saquon Barkley Focused on the Now

The New York Giants are firmly in the hunt for their first postseason berth since 2016, but around the confines of the team's locker room, the focus is squarely on the next game, as has been the case since the start of the season.

"The only way we get that is if we control what we can control, right? That’s the focus," said running back Saquon Barkley. "Keep the main thing the main thing. We’re going against a great team in Minnesota who has a great defense, a very veteran defense. It’s going to be a great matchup."

If you don't believe that Barkley and his teammates are locked in on their Christmas Eve game against the Minnesota Vikings and not the playoffs, consider that Barkley didn't even know the scenarios that have to unfold this weekend for the Giants to clinch a spot in the postseason tournament.

"I just learned that today, right now," he said when told of the scenarios. But like I said, the first thing you said is we win, right? We’ve got to focus on us. We can’t worry or be concerned with what happens outside of that. We put ourselves in a position to be in the driver’s seat, and that’s the beauty of it. We’ve got to capitalize on that."

Although he has been waiting five years to get to the point where this team is in position to make the playoffs, Barkley has not allowed himself to think about what making the playoffs would mean to him.

"No, I don't have time for it," Barkley said, "because I just try to live in the moment."

For the Giants to have that chance, they'll need another strong showing from Barkley, who bounced back last week against the Commanders after being limited against the Eagles the week before that.

"I felt like I felt the week before, outside you know, with the neck, and I felt like I felt the week before that. Just was able to get into a grove, was able to get into a rhythm, in a key spot, a critical part of the game," he said.

"I’ve just got to find a way to do that earlier in the game for us. The o-line played amazing. The o-line gave me opportunities, especially at the end, and we were able to go down. I wish we would have scored and just ended it, but we were able to get three points and leave it up to our defense, who’s been playing amazing all year and finished the job for us."

Barkley knows that even though they won against the Commanders, 13 points from the offense is not enough to feel comfortable against a Vikings team that can score 39 points in a half. He knows they must be critical of their performance to continue improving.

"There’s so much more out there. But at the end of the day, the objective and the goal is to win games. But we want to be dominant. We want to score however many points we can score. The way we do that is just by being your biggest critic.

"Even after a great win like last week, coming in and watching film on your own, putting it in the past and moving on from it and seeing what we can do to advance from that. Like you said, the Vikings do a great job at putting points on the board. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to play our style of football. However many points we’ve got to score to win the game, that’s what we’ve got to try to do."

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