Rushing title still in sight?
Barkley not giving up on it as he chases other major milestones
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Saquon Barkley had a glint in his eye Thursday as he repeated the number.
“Two thirty-six,” Barkley said with a smirk. “That’s what it is?” That’s what it is: 236 yards. That is Ezekiel Elliott’s advantage, with 1,434 rush yards, on Barkley’s 1,198 in the race for the NFL’s rushing title entering Sunday’s season finale between the NFC East champion Cowboys (9-6) and Giants (5-10) at MetLife Stadium.
Unattainable? Maybe, but not in Barkley’s eyes. He’s not ready to concede.
“I mean, you never know,” Barkley, 21, said with a smile.
So Sunday’s game at least will be a worthy watch to see if Barkley can do the near-impossible and become the third straight rookie to win the NFL’s rushing title after ex-Chiefs back Kareem Hunt won it last year and Barkley’s friend and fellow Big Ten product Elliott did it in 2016.
He’d also have to leapfrog the Rams’ Todd Gurley (1,251), but that’s possible because Gurley (knee) is expected to rest in preparation for the playoffs.
Adrian Peterson set the NFL record for rushing yards in a game as a rookie with 296 on Nov. 4, 2007, per Elias Sports Bureau, and a running back has eclipsed 236 yards in a game already this season: Titans vet Derrick Henry went for 238 on the Jaguars on Dec. 6.
Barkley’s high for a game in his rookie season also is a respectable 170 rush yards on Dec. 9 at Washington, the second-highest total by a rookie in Giants history behind Bill Paschal’s 188 at the Polo Grounds against Washington on Dec. 5, 1943.
There are two problems, however, with Barkley’s dream Sunday scenario:
First, Elliott says he’s playing on Sunday even though the Cowboys have clinched a playoff berth. And he is motivated to seal this rushing title in part by last year’s six-game NFL suspension that may have stood in the way of three consecutive rushing titles to start his career.
“It’s definitely on my mind,” Elliott said Wednesday, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The plan is to go out there and play and approach this week the same we have been approaching the past weeks. We got to make sure we come out there and have a lot of intensity and have some momentum going into the wild card week.”
Also problematic is that Barkley and the Giants’ run game have skidded to a halt. Or as Barkley said Thursday: “the last two weeks it hasn’t been going my way.”
The Giants’ No. 2 overall pick is averaging just 2.11 yards per carry the last two games, rushing 35 times for 74 yards. The Giants’ offense is tied for last in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings this season with 63 rushing first downs.
There are milestones other than the rushing title, though, that are more realistic for Barkley to attain in Week17.
With 114 yards against the Cowboys, Barkley (1,886 scrim- mage yards) would join Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson (2,212 yards in 1983) and Edgerrin James (2,139 yards in 1999) as the only rookies with at least 2,000 scrimmage yards in NFL history.
With two more catches, Barkley (87 receptions) would surpass Reggie Bush’s 2006 record of most catches by a rookie running back in league history (88).
The rushing title, though? That’d be a special and thrilling way to close a disappointing year for the Giants.
Odell unlikely to play: Odell Beckham Jr. (quad) appears headed for a fourth straight scratch due to injury to close the season. He continued to sit out practice but wasn’t even on the sideline Thursday as he had been Wednesday, and he was never seen by media in the locker room or facility, though word was he was receiving treatment.