On one of the most important running plays of the New York Giants' win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Saquon Barkley didn't even touch the ball.
NASHVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 11: Saquon Barkley #26 of the New York Giants celebrates after beating the Tennessee Titans in an NFL football game at Nissan Stadium on September 11, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. On one of the most important running plays of the New York Giants' win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Saquon Barkley didn’t even touch the ball.
Not this time. Quarterback Daniel Jones faked a handoff to Barkley, who drew pretty much all of Nissan Stadium to the right side of the line … leaving Jones a clear field to scamper for a first down. Four plays later, the Giants were in the end zone, and one successful Barkley dive after that, and the Giants seized their first lead with 69 seconds left in the game.
Barkley looked, in short, like the kind of back the Giants dreamed they would be getting when they drafted him second overall in 2018 — and dropped him right in the middle of a maelstrom of poor planning, incompetent management, misguided coaching and organizational dysfunction so complete it sabotaged even Barkley’s vast talent. A torn ACL cost him all but two games of the 2020 season, an injury from which he’s only just now recovering.