EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In the Giants' 30-27 overtime victory against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Saquon Barkley increased his rushing total for the season to 954 yards, breaking the franchise record for a rookie that Pro Football Hall of Famer Tuffy Leemans had held since 1936.
But even an 82-year-old mark wasn't close to the oldest statistical milestone a Giants player reached during the game.
Odell Beckham, Jr. threw a 49-yard touchdown pass and had a one-yard touchdown reception against Chicago. It was the second time this season he both threw and caught a touchdown pass in a game. On Oct. 7 at Carolina, Beckham threw a 57-yard scoring pass and had a 33-yard touchdown catch.
Beckham's double-double feat enabled him to join some very select company. He is the first player in 94 years to record multiple games with a touchdown pass and a receiving touchdown in a single season. Eddie Kaw and Benny Boynton of the 1924 Buffalo Bisons – remember them? - are the only players to previously accomplish the feat.
Beckham, who leads the Giants with 77 catches and 1,052 receiving yards in 2018, is the only player in league history with at least 1,000 receiving yards and multiple touchdown passes in a single season.
*Many NFL rookies have had 11 games in which they had more than 100 yards from scrimmage – most recently Ezekiel Elliott in 2016 – but Barkley is the first player in NFL history to hit that total in 11 of his first 12 career games. The NFL rookie record for games with at least 100 scrimmage yards is 13 by Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson in 1983.
*In the last three games, Barkley rushed for 142 yards vs. Tampa Bay, 101 yards at Philadelphia, and 125 yards against Chicago to become the first Giants rookie with three consecutive 100-yard games.
*Barkley has five 100-yard rushing games this season, the highest total by a Giants back since Brandon Jacobs had five such games in 2007. In 2017, two rookies had at least five 100-yard rushing games: Kareem Hunt (6) and Leonard Fournette (5).
*Barkley has 195 rushing attempts this season. Ron Dayne holds the Giants rookie record with 228 in 2000.
*Barkley needs 46 yards to reach 1,000 yards for the season. He would be the 57th rookie to reach that total since the NFL went to a 16-game season in 1978. The 1,000-yard season would be the 24th in Giants history.
*Barkley has 74 receptions. In the final four games, he needs 15 to break the NFL record for catches by a rookie running back (88 by Reggie Bush in 2006).
*Eli Manning reached a milestone on Sunday he certainly would have preferred to avoid. He was sacked three times to increase his season total to a career-high 41 (his former single-season high total was 39 in 2013) and an even 400 times in his 15-year career.
Manning is the 16th quarterback in history with at least 400 sacks taken. The NFL record for being sacked is held by Hall of Famer Brett Favre with 525. Manning ranks fifth among active quarterbacks behind Ben Roethlisberger (494), Tom Brady (468), Alex Smith (410) and Philip Rivers (401).
*With his 3.0 sacks on Sunday, rookie defensive lineman B.J. Hill took the team lead with 5.0 for the season. That ties the Giants rookie record set by linebacker Andy Headen in 1983 and tied by tackle Cornelius Griffin in 2000. Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor had 9.5 sacks as a rookie in 1981, but that was a year before sacks became an official statistical, so it is not officially the record.
No Giants rookie has ever finished a season leading the team in sacks.
*Beckham and Chicago running back Tarik Cohen each threw a touchdown pass on Sunday. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first Giants game in which both teams had non-quarterbacks throw touchdown passes since Nov. 19, 1961, when running backs Bob Gaiters of the Giants and Dick Hoak of Pittsburgh did it.
Before Sunday, touchdown passes thrown by non-quarterbacks for each team had most recently happened in an NFL game on Nov. 2, 2008, when Tampa Bay running back Earnest Graham and Kansas City wide receiver Mark Bradley did so.
*Another unusual touchdown on Sunday was by Chicago defensive tackle Akiem Hicks, who scored on a one-yard run. Hicks was the first player whose primary position was on defense to score a rushing or receiving touchdown against the Giants since Sept. 8, 1996, when Dallas Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders scored on an eight-yard reception.
*Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas has scored 99 points this season and needs just one more to become the first Giants player to score 100 in a season since Josh Brown scored 134 in 2015. The Giants' placekicker scored at least 100 points in every season from 2005-15.
*Rosas has made 96.3 percent of his field goal attempts (26 of 27). The franchise record for a full season is 93.8%, set by Brown in 2015 (30 of 32).
*Zak DeOssie played in his 184th regular-season game on Sunday, tying Joe Morris and Taylor for sixth on the Giants' career list.
*The Giants' last four games have been decided by four, three, three and three points. It is the first time since Nov 13-Dec. 4, 1994 that the Giants have played four straight games decided by four or fewer points. Each of their first three games in 2016 were decided by three or fewer points.
*With their victory on Sunday, the Giants have won 10 of their last 11 overtime games dating back to a triumph in Philadelphia on Dec. 11, 2005. That total includes their victories in the 2007 and 2011 NFC championship games in Green Bay and San Francisco. Their only overtime loss during the streak was to the Jets on Dec. 6, 2015.
*The game was just the second time the Giants and Bears went to an overtime and the first since Dec. 18, 1977, a 12-9 Chicago victory.
*The Giants have won their last two games in which they trailed at halftime (in San Francisco on Nov. 12 and on Sunday). Prior to those two games, the Giants had lost 17 consecutive games – including in the postseason – in which they trailed at halftime.
*The Giants had their two longest possessions of the season – by time – on Sunday. A third-quarter touchdown drive took 7:11 to complete and a later series that ended in a punt lasted 6:59. Before Sunday, the Giants' longest drive of the season lasted 6:45 (and ended with a field goal in San Francisco).
*The Giants-Bears game took 3:34 to complete. It was the Giants' longest game since Dec. 22, 2013, when they needed 3:35 to win an overtime game in Detroit, 23-20.
*Odd statistic of the season: The Giants are 3-0 this season when they have fewer than 200 net passing yards. They are 0-3 when the opposition throws for fewer than 200 yards.
*Cohen caught 12 passes for 156 yards on Sunday. He is the first running back with at least a dozen catches against the Giants since Washington's Kelvin Bryant on Dec. 7, 1986 (13).
*Cohen's 156 receiving yards were the most by an opposing running back since Cleveland's Ernie Green had 160 on Nov. 14, 1965. Green finished that season with 298 receiving yards.
*Including his 30 rushing yards, Cohen finished with 186 scrimmage yards. That was the highest total by a Giants opponent since former Carolina Panther - and current Giant - Jonathan Stewart had 222 (206 rushing, 16 receiving) on Dec. 27, 2009, in the Giants' final game in Giants Stadium.
*The Giants will take a 99-68-4 regular-season record against Washington when they invade FedExField on Sunday. With a victory, they will become the first NFL franchise with 100 regular-season wins against another franchise.
