RB Saquon Barkley -- November 7, 2019
Q: How close do you feel like you are back to your old self?
A: I feel like how I’m supposed to feel right now. It’s week whatever in the NFL, everyone’s a little banged up, everyone’s a little sore. You’ve just got to suck it up and fight through it. I’m just going to continue to fight through what I’ve been going through, I guess you could say, and just try to get better and try to help my team win.
Q: Is this stuff holding you back in any significant way do you think?
A: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s holding me back. It’s obvious I had an ankle injury, but it would be easy for me to sit here and make an excuse of why this and why that, but that’s not what I’m going to do. I’m just going to find a way to get better, find a way to help the team get better, find a way to be more efficient in the run game and help our team win games.
Q: I know you have different ways to measure your productivity, whether it’s touchdowns, yards, wins—wins, of course, most important. In that regard, has this season been a disappointment for you?
A: Disappointment? No. What’s to be disappointed about? Obviously, yes, am I upset that we’re 2-7? I don’t think anyone’s happy that we’re 2-7. Am I happy that I hurt my ankle and I missed three and a half games this year? No, I’m not happy about that. But, disappointing? No. I get to come in and play the sport that I love and play for an amazing organization, so I’m not disappointed at all. We’ve just got to find a way to get better, find a way to fight through it, and when we do flip the script, there’s definitely going to be great things ahead, I believe.
Q: How would you critique yourself in the two games that you’ve been back?
A: Just got to be better. Even if I ran for 200 yards, I’m always going to say there’s somewhere you could be better, you’ve got to find a way to be better. I could be more efficient in the run, better in the pass game, better all around, better leader. I always can improve. Especially, it’s easier to just pick out the little things when you’re losing, but you’ve still got to be the same way when you’re winning games. Then, it’s easy to pick out the things you need to be better on when you’re having bad games, but even when you’re having great games, you’ve still got to be as hard on yourself the same. So, just be better overall.
Q: It looks like you’ve had tough sledding in the run game maybe. Do you want the ball more in the passing game? Do you feel like you could handle more in the passing game, in terms of getting the ball in open space and being more involved in that way?
A: When the running game’s not going well, the way I look at it is don’t panic. Whether it’s you’re going through a slump, whether it’s a game you’re going through a slump, whether it’s multiple games, the way I believe in myself and believe in the offensive line that we’re going to get it going, we’re going to figure it out. As of right now, I’ve just got to give credit to the defenses we’ve been playing. They’ve been doing a really good job within the run game. But we still haven’t been putting ourselves in positions to win games, and no matter whether the run game is doing great or not doing so great, we’ve still got to figure out how to win games. But to fix the run game, as a leader, and as the running back, I’ve got to take responsibility of that and find a way to do it.
Q: A year ago at this time, I think there was a really concerted effort for you to just get more downhill and be decisive. Is that something you feel like you need to get back to a little bit?
A: It depends. It depends who you play, with the defense that you’re playing. Yes, you always can say, the answer can always be, be downhill and hit it more. That always can be the way. But then there are some people where you just run into walls, you run into the back of your offensive linemen, and that’s not the way to do it all the time. You have to understand who you’re playing. I think a team like Dallas, they were slanting and doing a lot of things up front to get penetration, straight penetration, so you can stop the feet of the running back or, in that case, for me. So, in a situation like there, you’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to find holes, and they did a really good job. That’s for every team. Any running back, sometimes there are just certain plays where you’ve just got to be downhill and have that mentality. There’s also got to be plays where you have to be hesitant—hesitant is not even the word—it may seem hesitant to other people, but sometimes you’ve got to be that back and set up your blocks and put your blockers in position for you to create yards down the field. But the best thing that I think the mindset for me, like you said, last year would be like, “Okay, I know I have to do this, down more.” This year it’s just reflect on yourself. Go back and just watch a lot of film on myself, how I was in the first two games, where we were a top-eight, a top-whatever rushing team, to the last two or three games where the rushing game hasn’t been going as well as we would like. Just reflect on myself and see how I can help the offensive line and see how I can help just the run game as a whole. When you’ve got a good run game going, the offense is probably executing at a high level, and we’ve got to get back to that.
Q: Are teams defending you any differently, stacking the box a little more, or maybe seeing different looks than last year your first time through the league?
A: It’s not different looks. It is what it is. What I see is the same thing they were doing last year that they’re doing this year. When you have a good back, take myself out of the situation, when you go against a good back, a way you stop them or slow them down is by trying to stop his feet, not getting them going downhill. That’s what teams are doing, when you’ve got gap scheme runs, a lot of ways runs are designed, you want to get to that open defender, and sometimes that open defender is a cornerback or a DB, and what DBs are doing, they’ll fly down, or a cornerback will fly down and try to create space. When you’ve got a guy who’s very good in space—once again, take me out of it, just talking about running backs in general—there’s a way that you try to stop it. There’s things that I know is going to happen, but once again, in the run game, you’ve got to take what they give you. But when opportunities come, you’ve got to make them pay for it and that’s what I haven’t been doing recently and I have to get back to that.
Q: What percent healthy do you think you’re at right now?
A: Whatever percent healthy is to be healthy to play. You can’t put a percent on anybody, not on myself. I can’t sit here and say I’m on this percent. That’s not fair to myself, that’s not fair to my teammates and my coaches. We’re all in week 10 of the season, everyone’s got some nicks and bruises and they’re all grinding through it, and I know my teammates are going to do that and I’m going to do the same thing for them.
Q: Finishing drives with touchdowns instead of field goals—is that a mindset with the offense right now?
A: It’s not a mindset of the offense right now, it’s every game. That’s something that we write down on our objectives as an offense every week, finishing drives. Last week, that’s what Dallas did a really good job of. We had the pick, we still came away with points, you always want to come away with points—any time you can get points on the board, it can help—but as an offense, we have to take it upon ourselves to find a way to get seven. I had a screen that was called perfectly, blocked up perfectly, I have to find a way to get into the end zone. But I didn’t. We go into inside the 10, inside the 15, and only got three points out of it. Those are the types of plays where it can change the mood and change the outcome of the game. At the end of the day, we got three points, but we’ve still got to be better, and I think that’s where we’ve got to be better as a team, just play better complementary football as a whole. When the defense is playing at a high level, we have to be playing at a high level. We can’t be slacking when they’re playing at a high level, and same thing with special teams. All three of us have got to play at a high level together, and that’s how you win football games.
Q: Five straight losses, you’re playing the Jets, that matters to the people upstairs. How important does that make this game?
A: I don’t think it matters to just the people upstairs. I think it just matters to everyone, especially fans. For us, personally, it matters just because it’s the next game on the schedule. It’s another opportunity for us to get better and go out there and get a win. Yes, I guess there is some, not saying bad blood, but we both play in the same stadium, we’re both New York teams, New Jersey teams, whatever you want to call it. Some people might see it in that direction, but how I was always taught and how I was always focused on when you’re coming up against games like this, is treat it like another game. It’s another game on our schedule that we’ve got to find a way to win.
Q: How’s your dad going to handle this game?
A: It’s kind of weird because he has a Jets tattoo, so even if he wears a Saquon Barkley jersey, he’s still repping the Jets. But, if you ever met my dad, you know my dad, he’s been a Jets fan his whole life, so is he going to root for the Jets? Yes, but he’s going to root for the Giants and his son at the same time. So, he gets the best of both worlds. Watch his team that he grew up rooting for and get to watch his son live his dream.
Q: How do you root for both teams at the same time?
A: That’s hard, right?
Q: You’re saying he actually roots for the Jets to win?
A: No, not to win. To win is for us, but I think what he said, he probably, I think, is going to wear a Jets jersey. That’s going to be an interesting one, but I gave it to him because it’s a Joe Namath jersey. I think I got him that jersey actually, the Joe Namath one. But at the end of the day, I knew this situation was going to come up one day, but I’m happy for him. I was a Jets fan growing up, too, so it’s fun. It’s going to be a little fun competition in the Barkley house.
Q: What’s your level of respect for Le’Veon Bell?
A: Le’Veon, that’s my guy. He’s a heck of a player. Just the way he sees the field, the way he sees the game, the way he can catch the ball out of the backfield, block, set up his blocks, he epitomizes what a running back, how you’re supposed to set up blocks. Some people may call his running style hesitant, but no. It’s called patience, it’s called setting up the blocks and putting himself in a position to be more successful. I’ve been a big fan of him since I was in college and it’s going to be fun to be able to watch him live, and I wish nothing but the best for him.
Q: Just because you’re the only one in this group with the means to do it, when you say you got him a Joe Namath jersey, you mean a replica or an actual one?
A: A replica. I got it before I was in the NFL (laughter). I wish, though. If I got a real Joe Namath jersey, I don’t think my dad would be getting it, that one would be going in my house.
