The Giants rolled to their seventh win of the season on Sunday and running back Saquon Barkley did a lot of the heavy lifting in the 24-16 win over the Texans.
Barkley ran the ball 35 times for 152 yards and a touchdown while Daniel Jones threw just 17 passes over the course of the victory. When the game was over, head coach Brian Daboll was asked what it is like to come up with a “conservative game plan” for his offense.
“I wouldn’t use that word,” Daboll said in his postgame press conference. “I would just use we try to do what we think we can do, which was run the ball for 46 times. I think [someone] asked me, ‘Is it as simple as just running the ball with Saquon Barkley?’ The answer’s no because they do a good job. They made some runs. But each week, we just do what we think we need to do for that particular game. If it’s 60 passes, it’s 60 passes. That’s what we do as a coaching staff. That’s what we’ll always do. I wouldn’t give it a label. I would just say we try to do the best job we can to formulate a plan and make sure the players execute it.”
When a team can’t stop you from running the ball up and down the field, it would be foolish do stop yourself. Daboll and the Giants haven’t made many foolish choices this season and their 7-2 record reflects the benefits of that approach.