An inside look at Sunday’s Giants-Commanders Week 15 matchup.

This did not go well the first time around for the Giants. Payne had two sacks, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. Allen had eight tackles, one sack and one forced fumble. The disruption up front was a big reason why Saquon Barkley after halftime had just 3 yards on his seven rushing attempts. 

Teammates at Alabama, Allen (2017) and Payne (2018) were selected in the first round of the draft one year apart and have combined this season for 104 tackles, 16 sacks, 30 tackles for loss and 33 quarterback hits. The Giants’ inside group has struggled too often. Ben Bredeson (knee) might be healthy enough to replace Gates at left guard. 

The team playing better is the Commanders (6-1-1 in their past eight games), and the team sagging is the Giants (1-4-1 in their past five). The tie two weeks ago left both sides wanting more. Here it is. Saquon Barkley must be a major factor for the Giants to go anywhere. Hard to think this is not a field goal game either way. 

Giants 23, Commanders 20 

Force field: It was not as if the Commanders ran the ball down the Giants’ throats two weeks ago, but they were certainly effective enough to play keep-away, evidenced by the glaring disparity (41:11-28:49) in time of possession. Brian Robinson (21-96) and Antonio Gibson (9-39) helped the Commanders rack up 165 rushing yards — 106 after halftime. The Giants are 29th in the league on defense against the run, allowing 149.7 yards per game. 

“They are a team that prides themselves on running the ball, maintaining possession, so we’ve got to stop the run,” safety Julian Love said. “I think that’s a premium in this game, that’s how they try to play the game.” 

Long division: At some point, the Giants have to win a game against an NFC East opponent. Right? They are 0-3-1, and that is no way to mount a postseason drive. The NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002, and since then, no team has qualified for the playoffs with fewer than two division wins. The Giants need to go 2-0 the rest of the way in the division to get there. After the Commanders, the Giants will later close out the regular season in Philadelphia, hoping the Eagles have the No. 1 seed in the NFC clinched by then and perhaps in rest-players mode. 

Road runner: Saquon Barkley rumbled for 152 yards in a Week 10 victory over the Texans. In the past four games, Barkley has a total of 152 yards. No wonder he has dropped from leading the NFL in rushing to No. 4. He is averaging 2.9 yards per attempt in that span. Perhaps this particular road game will rejuvenate Barkley. In the three games he has played at FedEx Field, Barkley ran the ball 49 times for 416 yards, an average of 8.5 yards per carry. Plus, he has three touchdowns. 

“You can’t read too much into that,” Barkley said. “It’s a new game; it’s a new season. New opportunity.” 

Night moves: The lights come on and the Giants turn off. They are 0-11 in prime-time games since Nov. 12, 2018 — when beat the 49ers, 27-23. Since then, they are 0-5 on Monday night, 0-4 on Thursday night and 0-2 on Sunday night. 

“That’s a crazy stat,” Barkley said. “Dang.” 

Dang, indeed. Quarterbacks get won-loss records attached to their names, thus Daniel Jones is 0-9 in prime time, having never played on a Sunday night. “I don’t make a ton of it,” Jones said. “We haven’t won enough games, period, around here.” 

Maybe this night affair breaks the schneid. “We’re a different team this year than we were in the past,” Barkley said.