Eric Dickerson Can Sleep Soundly This Weekend As Saquon Barkley Will Not Play Against The Giants And Go For The Single Season Rushing Record
Mitchell Leff. Getty Images.Saquon Barkley became just the 9th running back in NFL history to hit the 2,000 yards mark in a season. He's just 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson's record for most rushing yards in a season, and the Eagles have a week 18 matchup with the New York Giants on Sunday.
The first time the Eagles played New York this season, Saquon had one of his biggest games of the season. 176 yards on the ground, and he didn't even finish the game. The Giants are a million miles away from being a legitimate NFL franchise. The team is god awful, and they've been god awful for years now. Everything would have lined up perfectly for Saquon Barkley to wrap up this historic season with 100+ yards in the 1st half and become the NFL's all-time leading single season rusher against the franchise that just let him walk out the door this past offseason.
But the Eagles have a bigger goal in mind than an individual record. While it would be great for Saquon to break the record and be cemented in NFL history by himself, he'd rather be cemented in NFL history as a Super Bowl Champion. So considering Sunday's game will have zero impact on the Eagles achieving that goal, he'll be watching on the sideline in street clothes.
Now I'm sure this wasn't just a Nick Sirianni decision. We saw Sirianni leave the decision up to Saquon during the first Giants game this season when he was close to breaking his personal best for most yards in a game. He asked if he wanted to stay in for another drive to break his career number, and Saquon told him to let the rest of the guys on the team eat. There was probably a similar conversation leading up to this week's game against the Giants.
Would it be great for Saquon to break the record? Yeah. No shit. It would be great for him, for all the offensive linemen who have blocked for him this season, and for the organization to be a part of history. But at the end of the day, it would suck so much ass if Saquon went out there on Sunday to break the record and ended up getting injured before the playoffs begin. What good would the record be if this team ends up losing in the divisional round because they can't run the ball anymore? It sucks that there's legitimately nothing to play for in this game, but it probably resulted in the smartest decision being made.
Anyway, go Birds. Go Saquon. And thank god John Mara doesn't have to watch Saquon break the record against the Giants. I honestly don't know if he'd be able to survive that.