When New York Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen held the same title with the Tennessee Titans, he faced Saquon Barkley in 2022. It didn't go very well.
Barkley ran for 164 yards on 18 carries, averaging 9.1 yards per attempt all while forcing four missed tackles. As if that wasn't enough, he added another 30 yards as a receiver in six catches, which could've been more had he not lost a fumble.
On Sunday, it'll be up to Bowen to keep Barkley from going off against the running back's former team.
"Yeah, I've had experience in playing with him," Bowen told reporters on Thursday ahead of Week 7's showdown. "Explosive. You give him space, he finds it. He's made teams pay already this season on that. Got the ability to make the home run, hit the home run every time he has the ball in his hands."
Bowen knows a thing or two about Barkley's home run ability, as he had a first-row seat to a 68-yard rush against his defense in that 2022 game. Giants fans need no one to tell them about it. But in 2024, oh, it's still there. The former Giant ranks seventh in the league with 11 attempts to go for 10 yards or longer, per PFF.
"So, we've got to be disciplined," Bowen added. "We've got to do a good job. We've got to get hats to the party. It's going to be tough bringing him down with one guy. Big challenge for us."
As big a challenge as it is, the Giants defensive coordinator isn't asking his players to take things personally against their former friend turned divisional foe. The mindset in Week 7 is to take it like just "another team."
"No, it's status quo for us," Bowen said. "It's week to week. It's another good player that we're playing. They've got good receivers on the outside. It's another team, another big challenge for us. We've got to be ready to go regardless of who it is. Obviously, they've got their history with him here, but I'm trying to do my best to keep them focused, keep us focused on the job at hand and us worrying about us and doing our job and being prepared and ready to go."
As the Giants try to climb back from a losing record, Barkley will be nothing but a fraction of their challenges against the Eagles offense.
"Yeah, (Eagles wide receiver) A.J. (Brown) missed that time," Bowen added. "He's back now, obviously, that's a big part of their offense. He showed up last week against Cleveland. I think the quarterback, the ability to run the football is always there with him. You’ve got to do a good job there. Obviously for us, we've struggled with some of these guys running the ball on us. On critical downs and third down, we're going to have to do a good job trying to keep him in the pocket and hopefully he doesn't get out and hurt us with his legs in the passing game. But they're talented."
