The numbers are the numbers and the player is the player.
The Giants know the numbers and that they are down. They also know the player and recognize that it is probably impossible to keep Saquon Barkley down for too long.
“You don’t want to be the team that lets him get hot,’’ nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II said Tuesday.
After erupting with a volcanic intensity last season, Barkley is merely smoldering in 2025. The Eagles are 4-1, coming off their first loss, during which Barkley was strangely uninvolved with a season-low six rushing attempts and uncharacteristically unproductive with a season-low 30 yards.
When there is an action, there is usually a reaction, and the Giants understand what that reaction from the Eagles will be — feed No. 26 — when these two NFC East clubs meet Thursday night at MetLife Stadium.
“I think everybody expects that,’’ safety Tyler Nubin told The Post. “When you don’t get your best guy involved and don’t get the result that you want, obviously things are gonna change. Definitely ready for that.’’
Barkley spent six years with the Giants, the team that made him the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft. He made it through one winning season, five losing seasons and a contentious contract battle that sent him to free agency, then to the rival Eagles, then to heights few have ever reached, then to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy as a Super Bowl champion.
Barkley’s exploits in 2024 were so spectacular that it was going to be extremely difficult for him to match them. After rushing for 2,005 yards in the regular season, averaging 125.3 yards per game and 5.8 yards per attempt, there was not much Barkley could do for an encore.
But no one expected this sort of drop-off. He has 267 rushing yards, averaging 53.4 yards per game and only 3.2 yards per attempt. He is on pace for 908 yards this season.
“That’s the tough challenge that great players face in their careers,’’ linebacker Bobby Okereke told The Post. “Once you put it on tape, everybody knows it and they’re gonna try to stop you. That’s probably a big factor in it. People just saying, ‘We’re not going to let Saquon beat us.’ Obviously that’s our mentality too, but they got a lot of great players that can beat you.’’
Through five weeks, anyone accustomed to looking to the very top of the NFL rushing chart to see where Barkley stacks up among the running back leaders needs to scroll down, and down, and down to find him. Jonathan Taylor of the Colts leads the pack with 480 rushing yards. Barkley? He is 21st in the league, tucked between two other high-priced backs, Christian McCaffrey (282 yards) and Josh Jacobs (266).
This is not a case of reduced usage leading to reduced production. Barkley has 83 rushing attempts and only three players have been called on more often: Taylor (94), McCaffrey (91) and James Cook (90).
Well, check that. There is some question as to Barkley’s workload. He had just the six carries in last week’s 21-17 loss to the Broncos. His main contribution came on a wheel route that hit big for a 47-yard touchdown reception.
Down the stretch, Barkley was almost an afterthought. He had a 17-yard run with five minutes remaining in the second quarter. After that, he was given only one rushing attempt the rest of the way. It was not as if the Eagles were in comeback mode and forced to throw the ball. Far from it. Barkley’s scoring catch put his team ahead 17-3 early in the third quarter.
The Eagles trailed for the first time midway through the fourth quarter, and by only 18-17. There was no need to get away from the running game, yet that is what the Eagles did. Barkley got one carry in the final eight Eagles offensive possessions.
After reviewing what went down in that game, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni emphasized that he wants to get touches for wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert, and Barkley.
“Now with that being said, of course we want to get Saquon the ball, but sometimes it’s getting him the ball through the pass game,’’ Sirianni said. “Sometimes it’s through the running game, obviously more so through the running game with him because he’s a running back.’’
Barkley has faced his former team one time (he sat out Week 17), in Week 6 last season, when he ripped through the Giants for 176 yards on only 17 carries in an easy 28-3 Eagles victory. He will surely be motivated to do that, again.
“I think everybody’s response is understanding they’re gonna try to run the ball,’’ Okereke said. “Saquon is a high-impact player and every time he steps on the field he’s got potential to be the best player on the field.’’
