NFL Power Rankings, Week 3: Cowboys, Ravens silence critics, Saints lose Brees

31. New York Giants (29)

You have to feel for Saquon Barkley at this point. It’s a bit early to compare him to Barry Sanders, but the start to Barkley’s career is an awful lot like what we saw throughout the Hall of Fame career Sanders had. Barkley does nothing but make highlight-reel plays but the New York Giants simply aren’t a good team. Just like Sanders was a machine on the field but the Detroit Lions did nothing throughout his career.

On Sunday, Barkley again put up some impressive numbers as he had 107 yards on the ground and 28 through the air. He also scored one of the Giants two touchdowns, but they fell to 0-2 on the season as they spent the majority of the game trailing the Buffalo Bills.

What was worse, was how similar this was to the week prior against Dallas. Barkley started each game out with a touchdown run to put New York ahead 7-0. Then, their defense got beat up as they gave up 21 unanswered to the Cowboys in Week 1 and 28 unanswered to the Bill in Week 2.

Doing so effectively takes Barkley out of the game as the G-Men have to start throwing the ball more in an effort to get back into the game and at this point in his career, that’s not a position you want Eli Manning in. Hence, the losing record.