Elliott, Barkley to renew rivalry
Former college foes will meet for the first time in NFL on Sunday night
Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon Barkley are friends from their days as foes at Ohio State and Penn State.
Now that they’re set to share the field for the first time as pros, the running back of the Dallas Cowboys remembers his only college encounter with Barkley, the promising rookie of the New York Giants.
To wit, the matching hurdle plays that Elliott recalls when Barkley was a freshman for the Nittany Lions and outgained the reigning offensive MVP from the first championship game in the four-team playoff era a season earlier. Elliott’s Buckeyes got the bigger prize, a 38-10 win.
“I went out and hurdled a guy and literally the next drive he comes back and hurdles one of our guys,” Elliott said. “That was pretty cool to me just to see him come back and do the same thing.”
Just as in that scenario three years ago, Elliott is the established star after leading the NFL in rushing as a rookie in 2016, and Barkley is the first-year upstart. As for the bigger prize Sunday night, the NFC East rivals need the win with both coming off season-opening losses.
“We don’t worry about that,” first-year Giants coach Pat Shurmur said. “That’s fun for everybody to talk about outside the building. We didn’t do enough in the first game to win the game, and we’re working to do what we can to win this next one. Period. End of story.”
It could be just the start of
the Elliott-barkley story. Friends since that night in Columbus, Ohio, after Barkley rushed for 194 yards while Elliott had 153 yards and a touchdown, they are now among the most important pieces for storied franchises trying to get back to the Super Bowl.
And each was the first running back taken in his draft: Elliott fourth overall in 2016 and Barkley at
No. 2 this year.
“They’re powerfully built guys,” Shurmur said. “When I say ‘collision balance,’ in the hole, guys bouncing off, and they can
keep their balance. (Elliott’s) production in his first two years had nothing to do with us selecting Saquon, but they’re similar in a lot of ways.”
Things to consider as these rivals meet within the first two weeks of the season for the sixth time in seven years:
Beckham’s back
In his first game since an ankle injury 11 months ago and since signing a $95, five-year extension, Odell Beckham Jr. had 11 catches for 111 yards against the Jaguars. The star receiver has had his moments against the Cowboys, most notably the leaping onehanded catch for a touchdown as a rookie four years ago. That was one of his two games against Dallas with two TDS. He has five scores in six games against the Cowboys.
Not so special
Giants punt returner Kaelin Clay, signed after the final cuts, had four yards on three returns. He fumbled the last one at the Giants’ 19-yard line, but he is getting a second chance. The Cowboys cut Dan Bailey, the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history, in favor of Brett Maher.