Watching the Giant play their season opener, they were competitive against a clearly better, more in-sync team.
You could see burps and brain farts, failures to execute, the lack of chemistry, make that the lack of CONSISTENT CHEMISTRY which comes from playing together, lots of reps.
Think Knicks...top-to-bottom rebuild, trying to cement an identity on both offense and defense.
As with the Knicks, patience...learning from mistakes...remain patient and don't deviate from the plan. The team had plenty of positive moments to go with all the stumbles.
Having said that, I was always very, very strongly in favor of drafting Barkley at #2. Darnold is going to be one hell of a quarter back for the Jets, but I perceived Barkley to be a very special back. VERY SPECIAL. What Giant brass characterized as once in a lifetime...okay, maybe once in a generation. Not making myself to a seer here, but I have fallen out of favor with the modern pro game, because they have in large part gone away from the running game. Jaguars had an excellent running game, are committed to an equal number of runs to passes, and it enables them to control the ball and string together drives (having said that, they won on a turnover, a tipped pass and runback, so a solid, coherent defense as well).
Well, #2 pick in the 2018 NFL draft took his lumps today, discovering unlike the collegiate level, you can't make something out of nothing just on sheer talent. Dropped some passes, got stuffed at the line, was unable to routinely turn the corner...however.
Saquon Barkley's first touchdown as a pro was one of the most electrifying runs I have EVER seen in 50 years of watching pro football. OLD SCHOOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PNljeoYVQThe offensive line finally gave him a hint of daylight; he burst forward into a breach within the defensive line, stopped on a dime and executed a decisive horizontal side step, a la Sayers & Sanders, turned one tackler completely around, made the next defender eat his dust in fending off an arm tackle, picked up speed breaking round end and along the sidelines as he went vertical, accelerating by a pair of defenders trying to disengage through a downfield block, stiff arming a tackler as he zoomed by, absorbing a glancing hit meant to knock him out of bounds, as he did some ballerina toe stepping along the sidelines, regaining his balance and forward momentum, shifting into his Secretariat gear as he pulled away from the final tackler, something of a speedster, but not speedster enough.
Breathtaking. I was screaming out loud, and I haven't given a damn about pro football in a while, but Saquon Barkley? A throwback running back with size and speed, jukes and toughness. Too soon to christen him as a bigger version of Barry Sanders, or to invoke the names of similarly sized and high velocity backs such as Eric Dickerson or Bo Jackson, but the strength the body the motor and the WILL are all there.
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