Ravens Determined to Shut Down Giants RB Saquon Barkley
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens know one of the keys to beating the Giants is shutting down running back Saquon Barkley.
That means getting everyone on the defense involved and that includes various players in the secondary.
“They’ll have to, no question about it," coach John Harbaugh said about the secondary's involvement. "A lot of it is how you play it, and how involved you make the secondary in the run defense. Some of that is how you structure the back end in terms of whether you have an extra guy down there or not [and] where you put them. Do you put them on the edge [or] do you put them in the box? Are we playing base, or are we playing sub-packages?
"Then, if you bring run pressures or not. So, that’s all part of it, and against a run offense like this, you have to kind of be creative with your run defense.”
Barkley leads the NFC with 533 yards rushing and is second in the NFL with 106.6 yards per game. Barkley also has 13 carries of 10 or more yards — ranked second in the NFL — and leads all running backs with 280 snaps.
So, the Ravens will be very familiar with Barkley on Sunday.
"He’s just a really tough guy to tackle," Harbaugh said. "[He’s] good out of the backfield, catches passes. [He’s] a good all-around – great all-around – running back [and] a heart and soul of their offense. But it’s just not him; [quarterback] Daniel Jones is playing really well, and he’s a tough tackle.
"He’s been making plays out of the pocket that I didn’t really expect to see, and he’s really made a big difference for them – throwing and running around. [Their] offensive line is playing well."
