Even Giants were in awe of Titans’ Saquon Barkley plan
The Titans’ plan was simple: Stop Saquon Barkley and you stop the Giants offense.
So the Titans stopped the star rookie running back and the Giants went from scoring 40 points a week ago to zero on Sunday in a dismal 17-0 home loss to Tennessee that officially eliminated them from playoff contention.
Barkley has been on a fast track for Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, entering the game with 1,124 rushing yards, a 5.4-yards-per-carry average and nine touchdowns on the ground and 78 receptions for 629 yards and four touchdowns through the air.
On Sunday in wet, cold and dreary conditions at MetLife Stadium, Barkley was smothered by the Titans defense for 31 harmless rushing yards on 14 carries and another 25 yards on four receptions. Eighteen touches for Barkley is not the Giants’ formula for success.
He had averaged 121 rushing yards per game in the past five, including last week’s 170-yard performance in the 40-14 win over the Redskins. The Giants, in those previous five games, four of which they won, were averaging 150.8 yards on the ground.
They finished with just 47 rushing yards on Sunday.
“The thought was to stop him,” Titans outside linebacker Derrick Morgan said. “He was the focal point of their offense and we knew they were going to get him the ball as much as they could. With Odell [Beckham Jr.] being out [with a quad injury], it was even more on his shoulders. So there was a very big emphasis throughout the whole week in practice of stopping him and at least limiting him.
“I think guys understood that and rose to the occasion.”
Titans nose tackle Austin Johnson said the “plan” was to “create a wall in front of” Barkley.
“We had to stop him to win the game,” Johnson said.
“The plan was to eliminate all the big plays,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said. “We couldn’t let him get the 80-yard runs. That was something we talked about all week. Odell wasn’t playing, so we knew Saquon Barkley was going to be a big key and we did a great job containing him.”
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Barkley praised the Titans defense. The 31 yards was his second-lowest output this season, behind only the 28 yards he was held to by Dallas in Week 2.
“They had a great game plan over there,” Barkley said. “Give credit where credit’s due. They came out and they made more plays than we made.”
Asked about being keyed on, Barkley said: “It kind of comes with the territory — especially when you’re having success in the running game. Obviously, a lot of teams are going to focus on stopping me … because we’ve been so successful in it the past five games. But we’ve still got to make plays and today we just didn’t do that.”
Barkley and some Giants offensive linemen said the Titans showed some different looks than they’d seen on tape from previous games.
“They did a lot of different things, gave us some looks and different movements, trying to create movement up there to confuse us,” Barkley said. “They tried to disguise blitzes and bring blitzes in certain places. That was what I thought they did differently than other teams we’ve faced.
“But that’s something we’ve practiced. We’ve got to execute on those plays.”
Right guard Jamon Brown, who’s been a key to the recent running success, said that Titans “had a good plan.”
“They did show a couple things they hadn’t shown [on film],” Brown said. “We just didn’t make the plays that we needed to. We had a slow start and couldn’t put anything together.”
