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Monday Media Transcript: RB Saquon Barkley

Eric from BBI : Admin : 12/10/2018 3:37 pm
RB Saquon Barkley -- December 10, 2018

Q: How would you say this team’s coming together right now?
A: We’re definitely coming together and playing really well as a team, but the reason why we’re doing that is because we’re playing for each other. That’s the message that’s been in the locker room and that’s been the message from Coach Shurmur, is coming together and playing for one another, and when you’re playing for your brother, it makes a lot of things easier.

Q: Do you have time to think about that word ‘playoffs’ right now because there is a possibility, even if it’s remote?
A: Not even worried about it. My focus is just to not focus on the outside factors. Just come into work every single day, try to get better, and see what I can do to help my team get better and try to finish the season as strong as we can.

Q: Coach Shurmur said that on the touchdown run, he’s never seen you run that fast. You disagree?
A: Technically, that’s my fastest mile per hour this year, I think I’ve got faster than that in college before. I don’t know. Probably for him in person, maybe.

Q: Do you know when you’re running faster than you normally are?
A: Yeah, you feel it in your body but you only get so many opportunities to do that. Those runs (don’t happen) very often in the NFL like (they do) in college, and when your (offensive line) blocks it up perfect like that and your tight ends do a great job on the outside and you get that one-on-one, you’ve got to do whatever it takes to get to the end zone and in that case, it was trying to use your speed.

Q: Eli (Manning) said he thinks the offense is starting to really run through you and the results since the bye kind of show that, you guys have won four of the last five (games). What do you think has been the biggest difference from the bye week to now, versus where you guys were at the beginning of the year?
A: The (offensive line), O-linemen dominating games, especially up front, on both sides of the ball, to be honest. We’ve been executing in all three phases of the game, and that’s what we weren’t able to do in the first half, especially on the offensive side of the ball. We weren’t executing. I told you this before, Coach (Shurmur) put up a whole film of plays that we missed and plays that we didn’t make, and if we make those plays, we have a different record in the first half of the year. But you can’t really worry about that anymore, you’ve got to put that in the past and focus on the remainder of the season and focus on the next game that we have up and continue to get better. I think the biggest thing would be the play by the offensive line, they’ve been tremendous giving Eli time and making me look way better than I actually am.

Q: Now that you’ve eclipsed (1,000 rushing yards) and done it in 13 games, can you chew on that and kind of reflect on what that means?
A: Yeah, getting 1,000 yards in the NFL is an amazing accomplishment and being the first rookie ever for the Giants to do that is even a bigger one. It’s big because even though my name might go in the record book, it’s not just myself – it’s the offensive line play and the guys in the running back room, from active to practice squad to (injured reserve), all those guys have been a tremendous help for me throughout this year. We got that record as a whole.

Q: How aware are you of where you sit among the rushing leaders in the league?
A: I see it on Twitter. What am I, fourth, third right now? To be up there with the names of those guys, the (Ezekiel Elliott’s), the (Todd Gurley’s) of the world, the Philip Lindsay’s of the world – his story is amazing, he’s been killing it this year too and I love watching him play. It’s an honor to be up there, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t really matter. It only matters how many wins you get and we’ve got to figure out how to continue to get those wins.

Q: You were high on the list, but you weren’t this high until the last month or so. Is winning a rushing title a goal for you?
A: Yeah, I want to be great. I want to go down as one of the best, and that’s not just going to happen in one day. You have to work for it, obviously with the help of your teammates, but if I don’t get it this year, I’m going to get it at some point. I promise you.

Q: How much more satisfying is it producing the way you are and seeing wins versus early in the season when you were coming out after a great effort and seeing losses?
A: Yeah, that’s what it’s all about. Coach says, ‘teams beat teams – players don’t beat teams’. You can go for 400 yards and lose the game. Obviously playing at a high level helps, but getting a win, in general, it just sits different in your stomach, no matter if you played well or you played bad. Obviously, if you played bad, as a competitor you want to do better, but at the end of the day, all that matters is about that win and the team coming together and getting a win. It’s just different. When you win, the locker room’s different, the train ride, the plane’s different. It’s an exciting feeling.

Q: You’ve had five touchdowns of 50 yards or more. When you pass a point at the line of scrimmage, does your brain go to another gear or something, step it up?
A: Sometimes you don’t even look at the guy in front of you. The way my brain processes it, I’m doing anything it takes to get to the end zone. Obviously with the help of your wide receivers blocking down the field, I think not enough credit’s given to those guys when you have touchdown runs – not only from myself, but just in the league in general, but especially on this team when you see (Sterling Shepard) and Odell (Beckham) and all those guys downfield blocking. But my mindset, the way I process it is, make that guy miss and try to find a way, whatever it takes to get into the end zone. I know I have five this year, but it just doesn’t sit well with me, there’s a couple that come to mind that I might’ve left on the field. Could’ve definitely did a better job of it, but I’ll get better.

Q: When are you fastest – first 10 yards, next 30 yards, last part?
A: I would say my acceleration, so probably the first 10 or 15 (yards). I’m a football player, I’m not a track runner, I’m not built like a track runner at all, so I hit top speed a lot quicker but I’m not able to maintain my top speed for as long as a guy like Tyreek Hill. That guy can fly. I can get up to those speeds, but definitely something I will hope to get better at, too, that I can maintain that speed for a much longer period of time. But the good thing about football is it’s 100 yards, only 99 yards really, so I think I’m good on that.

Barkley  
smokeybandit : 12/10/2018 3:51 pm : link
"you guys have won four of the last five (games). "

Any the one they lost was the one that Shurmur essentially benched Barkley for the 2nd half
So much to like in this kid’s attitude  
exiled : 12/10/2018 5:35 pm : link
Seems like a really good teammate.
Is winning a rushing title a goal for you?  
RobCrossRiver56 : 12/10/2018 6:04 pm : link
" if I don’t get it this year, I’m going to get it at some point. I promise you. "
.  
arcarsenal : 12/10/2018 6:08 pm : link
Man crush just keeps getting bigger for this guy.
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