Saquon Barkley Challenges Giants Teammates After Week 6 Loss

The New York Giants played their most competitive brand of football since the Week 2 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, but they still came up short.

After the outing, Saquon Barkley had a very direct message on the 1-5 start and what’s next for this team in the coming weeks. “I mean, it depends, it can go two ways,” the star running back began when asked if he sees the Buffalo Bills defeat as a “gut-punch loss” or a “building block” for the future during his postgame press conference.

“That’s with anything in life,” Barkley explained. “When something happens, you can pick [one of] two choices — you can let it be like that or you can go to work and you can see that we’re 1-5, we’re not where we want to be, everyone’s going to continue to say what they want to say about us, but it’s on us. No one’s going to save us, it’s on us.”

Former Giants All-Pro Carl Banks had a similar message after Week 4, but it’s better to hear this sentiment coming from someone inside the locker room. And Barkley wasn’t the only one speaking this newfound mentality into existence after the Week 6 loss.

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Giants’ Justin Pugh Shows Leadership After Week 6 Loss to Bills

Not long after Barkley, the NYG media spoke with veteran offensive lineman Justin Pugh, who was quite remarkable in his Big Blue return switching from left guard to left tackle on the fly.

“There’s a lesson in this somewhere,” Pugh told reporters. “You get dealt a s***** hand, you gotta play the best you can and then go out there and fight for your guys.”

“That’s the one thing that I always do,” the blocker voiced. “You look to the guy next to you, to the right of you, and look at Tyrod [Taylor] back there, and you’re like — hey, I got a job to do, I want to go out there and fight for those guys.”

After that initial message from Pugh, he was asked a follow-up on the locker room and the Week 6 spark provided by both Barkley and Taylor.

“Everyone on this team is willing to do whatever it takes to win,” Pugh responded. “I’ve been here for two weeks now but seeing the character of the men in this building, we’re going to win games. We’re going to keep fighting.”

“It may not always be the prettiest — there may be an 11-year vet, 364 days off an ACL going out there and playing left tackle — but I’ll go out there and fight,” the long-time pro stated, leading by example. “I think everyone in this room is going to say the same thing.”

“We’re going to get back to work,” Pugh added, acknowledging: “Obviously we didn’t win — the goal was to win the football game and we did not win — so, it’s back to work on Tuesday and go [and] get a win anyway possible next week.”

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Giants HC Brian Daboll: NYG Need to Come in Enthused ‘Every Week’

Clearly, Pugh is choosing the latter half of Barkley’s Week 7 challenge. “You can let it be like that or you can go to work,” and the veteran offensive lineman is only interested in getting back to it.

Giants head coach Brian Daboll addressed the media on Monday, October 16, and his thoughts were no different than either of the two team leaders above.

“I think you come in enthused on Wednesday every week,” Daboll replied when asked if there is any additional energy after a narrow loss to a Super Bowl contender. “You do the necessary things you need to try to do each week to put yourself in a good position and compete and give yourself a chance.”

“That’s what you do every week,” the NYG head coach reiterated. The next opportunity comes at home against the division rival Washington Commanders on October 22.

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