WHO YA GOT?
Golfer Brooks Koepka puts Saquon Barkley on spot when he asks which Giant QB he prefers
PGA Tour standout Brooks Koepka joined Saquon Barkley’s Friday night Instagram Q&A with a doozy of a question: “Danny dimes or Eli? @saquon,” Koepk a wrote.
That is, of course, not a question the
Giants’ running back will ever answer. But Barkley can answer his critics on Sunday against the Dolphins with an explosive performance.
He has not rushed for 100 yards in a game since Week 2, prior to the Week 3 high right ankle sprain that sidelined him for three games. And while Barkley adamantly insisted just a few weeks ago that he was no longer hurt, he now says the injury took a mental toll and slowed him.
“I feel really good [now], probably feel [better], to be honest, than a lot of people in the league,” he said Thursday. “I was banged up earlier in the year, so I’m getting better and better each week. It’s not so much the injury that I guess you could say is holding me back. Even though physically you feel like you’re back, mentally you might be telling yourself that you’re back, but you watch yourself on film and you can see the way that you’re running and you’re protecting yourself. You don’t really think you’re doing it, but naturally it’s just happening.
“But I think I’m getting better and better each week,” Barkley added. “My body is getting healthier and healthier each week. [I’m going to] try to finish the season off strong.”
Running backs coach Craig Johnson said that when Barkley lamented he wasn’t running true to the style that made him the No. 2 overall pick, Johnson simply showed Barkley tape of his runs at different points in his career and let him draw his own conclusions.
“We usually go down, have a little film session, and we say OK this is the guy we know, this is how he plays. Is he playing like that off of tape right now?” Johnson said. “I don’t make that [judgment]. I let the player make his own criticism of himself. All the good ones have wanted to do that, and they will say I need to do this.”
The Dolphins have the NFL’s 30th ranked run defense, allowing 141.1 on the ground per game. But the Giants have only the league’s 26th best rushing attack at 93.8 yards per game, and they’ll be without their best O-lineman, starting right guard Kevin Zeitler.
So it’s time for Barkley to tilt the scales.
EXPECT FRIENDLY FIRE FROM TIGERS
Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence laughed Thursday as he delivered a message for Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins.
“I’m gonna destroy him,” Lawrence told the News. “Oh, I’m gonna get him. He plays on field goal protection. I’m gonna go get him. You can let him know, too!”
No need. Lawrence already has let Wilkins know himself. The former Clemson teammates talk almost “every day,” and they’ve been talking about facing each other “all year.” They didn’t get that opportunity in college.
Wilkins and Lawrence won two national championships together with the Tigers (2016, 2018) as the anchors of a dominant defensive line. The Dolphins drafted Wilkins 13th overall in April, and the Giants took Lawrence four picks later at 17.
Wilkins turns 24 on Dec. 20, whereas Lawrence just turned 22 on Nov. 12. But they remain great friends and are excited about a rare opportunity to face off on special teams.
“That’s my homie,” Lawrence said. “Funny dude, too. And you’re not gonna really see him have a bad day — unless he can’t play football.”
WATCH OUT FOR TRICKY DOLPHINS
If Miami opens Sunday’s game with an onsides kick, former Dolphin Michael Thomas wouldn’t be surprised.
“You have to expect something crazy,” Thomas said with a smile.
Dolphins special teams coordinator Danny Crossman’s unit has been one of the league’s “most aggressive,” Giants coordinator Thomas McGaughey admitted. So the Giants must be on guard.
Miami got a lot of attention for its 1-yard, fake field goal touchdown pass two weeks ago against the Eagles from punter Matt Haack to kicker Jason Sanders. But they’ve been creative risk-takers all year.
They’ve converted two fake punts, three onsides kicks (though two were negated by offsides) and the fake field goal TD pass.
“They’re not afraid to call fakes,” said Thomas, the Giants’ special teams captain and a former Dolphin (201317). “You can’t be scared, but you have to be aware that’s what they can do.”
OGLETREE ALARMS WITH CRITIQUE
Alec Ogletree, a Giants’ defensive captain, set off alarm bells in a WFAN interview this week by saying the defense wasn’t prepared for the Eagles’ play call on Philly’s game-winning overtime pass to wide-open tight end Zach Ertz.
“They kind of spread us out. They made us adjust a little bit. They motioned down to like a bunch look and
I mean, we had guys doing stuff that we haven’t practiced on or really been in that situation,” Ogletree said. “And the little bit of communication got lost on who was supposed to do what, and they were able to execute on it. We just didn’t, we weren’t really prepared for that play, you know. We knew something like that was gonna happen, but we had guys in different positions.”
Pressed to explain, Ogletree added: “They’d never shown that play. The way we adjusted to it was right at first, and then when they motioned to the bunch, it was just something that we just didn’t see. They knew what we were gonna be in and it kind of caught us off-guard a little bit.”
Ogletree and Thomas both were caught in no-man’s land on the play. Ertz appeared to be Thomas’ man. The Giants’ linebacker later said he did not intend it to be a criticism of his coaches, but it was difficult to hear it as anything else.
To explain, the Giants had seen that Ertz route concept countless times before, but
not while defending it out of goal line personnel.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher said: “That’s a concept that they really run in different ways and we hadn’t really seen it out of that look … We have to coach it better and we have to execute better in that moment.”
SOLDERS HONORED DURING DIFFICULT TIME
The Giants nominated left tackle Nate Solder for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award for his and wife Lexi’s many charitable works, such as their financial support of the Compassion International nonprofit that the Daily News wrote about in September.
And it’s additionally impressive they are so giving due to their personal situation.
The Solders’ 4-year-old son, Hudson, underwent surgery in mid-November to have a tumor removed and is currently undergoing his third round of chemotherapy. He was diagnosed originally at three months old with a rare Wilms tumor in both kidneys. Solder takes a ton of grief for Giants fans when he underperforms, especially because he signed a four-year, $62 million contract with $35 million guaranteed in 2018. Fans should know about how selfless he is, though, because football isn’t even half of his story.
“I think it’s a shame on me if the money only helps the Solder family,” Solder said. “My belief is that this money has been entrusted to me not for the personal comfort and security, but for an actual impact that we can have on our community and the people around us.”
INVESTIGATION CLEARS GIANTS
NFL Network reported that a joint NFL-NFL Players’ Association investigation found the Giants did not violate the concussion protocol in Week 1 by leaving a clearly shaken up Sterling Shepard in their road loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Shepard was diagnosed with a concussion after the defeat and missed the next week’s home game against the Buffalo Bills. He returned to the lineup in Week 3 but sustained a second concussion in Week 5 against the Minnesota Vikings, when he was removed and examined but allowed to go back in that game.
Shepard then missed five straight games and saw specialists in Pittsburgh before returning seven weeks later in Week 12 against the Bears. He was cleared from the protocol before the Giants’ Monday night Week 9 game against the Cowboys but had a setback and stayed out.