Kyle Rudolph doesn’t think Saquon Barkley owes him for overtime fumble recovery

Giants tight end Kyle Rudolph recovered an overtime fumble from Saquon Barkley during the team’s Week 4 win on Sunday.

Saquon Barkley won the game for the Giants on Sunday — he crossed the plane in overtime to give Big Blue a 27-21 victory over New Orleans.

But he also could’ve potentially lost the game for New York. Barkley coughed up the football during the team’s winning drive in overtime. Giants fans held their breath for a couple of seconds prior to Kyle Rudolph‘s crucial recovery of the ball.

Barkley spoke on the matter after the win and said he owed the veteran tight end dinner. Rudolph, however, doesn’t need the reward.

@KyleRudolph is a nice guy. pic.twitter.com/DhkkcJoCGh

— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) October 5, 2021

“We’re not going to dinner, [the recovery is] my job,” Rudolph said in a Tuesday appearance on NFL Network. “When you have a guy like that that is as dynamic and explosive as he is, you know when he gets the ball in his hands, the first guy is not going to make the tackle. So you always run towards the ball just in case something like that happens. Sure enough, the ball came out and I was right over there and able to fall on it…Saquon’s job is to make people miss and make explosive plays like that and I’m just glad I was able to be right there and smother that football as quickly as I could so we could finish the drive and win the game in overtime.”

Rudolph caught two passes for 24 yards in the win — he hadn’t caught a pass since the Giants’ Week 2 loss to Washington back on Sept. 16.

Barkley, on the other hand, put together his best game of 2021. The back combined for 126 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns (one rushing and one receiving).

It was Big Blue’s best offensive performance (from a yardage perspective) since Jason Garrett took over as the offensive coordinator in 2020. The Giants totaled 485 yards, 402 of which were through the air thanks to a phenomenal performance from quarterback Daniel Jones.

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