Saquon Barkley is making this Giants-Jets rivalry game personal.
His dad’s a Jets fan. Barkley grew up rooting for them, too. He had an embarrassing 13 carries for one yard against the Jets in 2019. And his younger brother is still giving him a hard time about that to this day.
“It’s a great rivalry — bragging rights,” Barkley said Thursday. “For me personally, I didn’t really have too great a game the last time I went against these guys. That still weighs heavy on my mind.”
The most embarrassing part of that loss two Giants coaching staffs ago was not Barkley’s one rushing yard, though.
It was Jamal Adams’ physical bullying of Barkley and Daniel Jones, blasting through the running back’s block and ripping the football out of Jones’ hands for a 25-yard fumble return touchdown.
“I was sitting down in my house and my little brother definitely reminded me about it, made a little joke about it,” Barkley said, cracking a smile. “That’s when I realized, like, dang, I really had one rushing yard against this team.”
It was the kind of moment that played on loop to help define another lost Giant season.
The kind of moment that Brian Daboll’s Giants (2-5) must be on the right side of in Sunday’s cross-town rivalry at MetLife Stadium against Robert Saleh’s Jets (3-3), who have similarly ruthless intentions coming off their bye week.
“It kind of gives you that old-school feel of a high school rivalry game,” edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux said entering his first career Giants-Jets regular season clash. “They’re a great team. They’ve got a great defense. We’re trying to outplay them.”
The stakes are extremely high for the Giants. The ramifications of either a win or loss will be fascinating to watch.
Tyrod Taylor (1-1) will make his third straight start in place of the injured Jones (neck), whose long-term prognosis is now in doubt. And if Taylor plays well and wins, he will elevate the ongoing quarterback debate to a full-blown controversy.
“You understand it’s a ‘juice’ game,” Daboll said.
But if the Giants lose, their season effectively will be over at 2-6. And that could prompt GM Joe Schoen to swing some extra deadline trades to pick up assets for the future, with players like Leonard Williams, Adoree Jackson and Xavier McKinney as possible chips.
Wide receiver Parris Campbell would make sense as a trade candidate win or lose.
Daboll was asked if those players received any assurances they’d be on the team next Wednesday, and the coach deflected.
Barkley is a fascinating focal point on Sunday, however, and not just because he has a sour taste from his last Jets meeting. His pops is actually on his side this time.
“My dad is a real big Jets fan, having a Jets tattoo,” Barkley smiled. “He’s still rooting for the Jets this game, but he hopes we win this time. So I got him to say that out of his own mouth two or three days ago. I finally got my father on my side.”
Barkley is most interesting because Daboll recently guaranteed him face-to-face and publicly that the Giants would not trade him before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. NFL trade deadline.
Now Barkley, who is playing through a dislocated elbow on a one-year contract, is talking about building a “winning streak.”
Winning Sunday and carrying the Giants toward another winnable game against the Las Vegas Raiders next week certainly would spice up a season that so far has brought mostly pain to the fan base.
Having Barkley at the center of that resurgence, especially after all the antagonistic contract negotiations in the offseason, would be a must-see story.
Taylor hit Barkley for an exciting 32-yard catch-and-run TD in last week’s win over Washington, and he’ll be looking for him again.
“He makes guys miss,” Taylor said. “It’s very rare that one guy takes him down. That’s what I’ll say: how dynamic he is as a player. You get the ball to him, whether it’s something down the field or something short, it can be a big play – because of the way he makes people miss. It creates explosive plays.”
The Jets defense is good, highlighted by an impressive 20-14 win over the Philadelphia Eagles before the bye. But the Giants defense has allowed 14 fewer points than the Jets have in their previous two games (21 to 35).
So Zach Wilson won’t be in for an easy day, either.
Daboll is under as much pressure as anyone Sunday, though, just as he was in last week’s nervy game against the Commanders.
He took over running the Giants’ offensive meetings last week and sent a message of increased urgency, with detailed coaching of the offensive linemen to address his team’s Achilles heel: the offense’s ability to score points.
Daboll once was Eric Mangini’s Jets quarterbacks coach in 2007-08, so he’s been on the other side of this rivalry for a 35-24 Giants win in 2007 when Eli Manning’s Super Bowl-bound club bested Chad Pennington’s team.
“I remember one year, it was not really good, the other year I think we had a winning record but kind of fizzled toward the end,” Daboll said of his Jets tenure. “I was only there for two years.”
Now, Daboll is on the Giants’ sideline. Sunday is a Giants home game, but even their head coach seemed curious about what the split in the stands will look like for this one.
“There’ll probably be hopefully a ton of Giants fans there,” Daboll said. “I’m assuming they are. They’ve been great all year. Obviously, there’ll be some Jets fans there. So [we] got to do a good job.
“It’s an important game for both teams,” he said. “Got a lot of respect for this tradition, the competitiveness. Every four years, we get a chance to play one another in the regular season, so [I] anticipate it being loud.”
It will be just as loud for the Giants after the game, too: loud with excitement for Taylor and a possible season turnaround if they win, loud with frustration if they lose for a fifth time in six weeks.
And maybe even loud in awe of Barkley if he can be the difference and carry the Giants out of the NFC’s basement and into an exciting new stretch.