Ask Chuck Pagano whom Giants running back Saquon Barkley reminds him of, and he talks it through.
“Who’s the greatest hurdler that you’ve seen?” the Bears defensive coordinator said Thursday. “The guy that can be running full speed, jump over the top of a guy, land on one foot, spin, put his hand down, keep his balance, keep running north and south, gaining more yards. This guy’s a special, special talent.”
Then comes to the answer.
“Earl Campbell,” he said.
The former Houston Oilers great is merely one of the 12 running backs on the NFL’s all-century team.
“He’ll run around you, run through you,” Pagano said of Barkley. “[He’s] got speed. Once he gets in the open field, he’ll take it the distance.”
If he had run behind the Lions line Sunday, he might have. The Bears made Adrian Peterson, the 35-year-old running back who had been a free agent just a week earlier, look like the star he used to be.
The Bears played without anchor Eddie Goldman, the nose tackle who opted out because of the coronavirus. Their defense was so poor that, on four of his five longest runs, Peterson totaled 52 yards before he was even touched by Bears players.
Peterson’s 6.6 yards per carry average was second-highest among all Week 1 running backs.
“After last week, you know they’re going to try to run the ball right at us,” Pagano said. “Whether it’s between the tackles, get him on the edge, throw him the ball in the pass game. Screens. … We’ve got our hands full.”
Sunday will mark the third-straight season they’ve faced Barkley, with differing results.
As a rookie against the Bears, Barkley ran 24 times for 125 yards and caught three passes for 21 more. He hurdled safety Adrian Amos on one run; on another, he gained 22 yards on third-and-23, was tackled with 6 seconds left in the first half and set up a 57-yard field Giants goal.
He played through a high-ankle sprain last year, and it showed. The Bears held him to 59 yards on 17 carries — and 31 of those were during a fourth-quarter drive with the Bears ahead by 12.
“I don’t think we have to discuss anything out of the normal,” Bears cornerback Kyle Fuller said. “But it does help that we’ve gone against him, we know what type of back he is. So we just have to do our job.”
Barkley returns to Soldier Field coming off perhaps the worst game of his career. In the Giants’ season opener Monday night against the Steelers, he ran 15 times for six yards — yes, you read that right — and caught six passes for 60 yards. Thirty-eight came on a screen pass that ended only after he hurdled Steelers cornerback Mike Hilton.
Poor pass protection by Barkley led Giants all-time rusher leader Tiki Barber, now a radio host, wonder this week whether he was truly a third-down back. Giants head coach Joe Judge defended him, and promised better things.
“We’re going to make sure we have everyone rising up,” he said.
The Bears have spent the week preparing for Barkley, hoping to avoid a repeat performance of their rushing defense in Week 1. But that only goes so far.
“X’s and O’s are just X’s and O’s,” nose tackle John Jenkins said. “It all depends on beating the guy and outplaying the guy that’s in front of you.”
