Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles embarrassed Joe Schoen’s Giants so badly in Sunday’s 28-3 laugher, they got Daniel Jones benched.
Barkley exploded for 187 total yards and a touchdown, including 176 rushing, in his emotional return to MetLife Stadium. Brian Daboll’s offense was non-functional without left tackle Andrew Thomas, just like last season.
And Daboll pulled his starting quarterback from Sunday’s embarrassing butt-kicking with the home team trailing by three touchdowns and 11:26 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Drew Lock’s version of the Giants offense promptly went three-and-out, too.
Jones was sacked seven times, with pressure coming from all angles. Barkley outgained the Giants 85-76 in the first half and 187-119 for the game.
There was also a concerning sign on defense in the fourth quarter, in addition to the Giants’ disgusting run defense: Corner Deonte Banks either decided not to pursue Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts near the sideline on a scramble, or he was injured.
Banks stayed on the field, though. And defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson lit up Banks on the sideline right when the play happened. It was an inexplicable apparent lack of effort, if that’s what it was.
Schoen’s decision to let Barkley walk in free agency to his division rival, however, is the worst look of all.
In HBO’s Hard Knocks this offseason, co-owner John Mara listened to Schoen explain his plan to let Barkley hit free agency and then only maybe match his best offer.
“I mean, in a perfect world, I’d still like to have him back, until we can prove that we can have a decent offense without him,” the Giants co-owner said.
Mara, director of player personnel Tim McDonnell and other front office executives challenged the GM’s intentions and conclusions at various turns in early offseason meetings.
“If we lose Saquon, right, what’s our identity going to be on offense now?” McDonnell said in a meeting. “And what’s our plan? What’s the next step of that, I guess is what I’m thinking. We’re losing a large part of our offense, our explosiveness, our touchdowns. Our quarterback, if it’s Daniel, depends on the run game.”
Schoen interjected.
“We’re gonna upgrade the offensive line, and you’re paying the guy $40 million,” the GM said. “It’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back.”
Sunday afternoon, the Eagles’ $40 million quarterback handed the ball off to Philly’s $12 million back, and it worked out just fine for them.
Barkley rattled off runs of 55, 41, 38 yards.
“I might have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philly, I’ll tell you that,” Mara unforgettably said when Philadelphia became a real player in the Barkley sweepstakes.
The Giants fell to 0-3 in the NFC East this season, 0-4 at home and an astounding 1-10-0 against the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys since Schoen and Daboll took over in 2022.
In early August, Mara said his obvious initial disagreement with Schoen over letting Barkley go this spring did “not really” raise the stakes for Schoen in his third season as Giants GM.
But he added this: “I mean, every year there’s gonna be a personnel decision that I’m not 100% in favor of, but at the end of the day, you let the general manager and the coach — particularly if they have a unified conviction — make the decisions. And then bitch about it later,” Mara said with a laugh.
“But that was the decision that they made, and no I wasn’t crazy about it at the time,” the co-owner addedd. “I didn’t want to lose him. But I understood what their philosophy was, and you’ve got to let them do their jobs.”
For as long as they have those jobs, anyway.