ORCHARD PARK — The voice deep inside Saquon Barkley was screaming, “Just give me the damn ball.”

“As a competitor, you would love the opportunity,” Barkley said after Tyrod Taylor threw high from the Buffalo 1-yard line for Darren Waller in the back of the end zone on the last play of the Giants’ 14-9 loss to the Bills. “But at the end of the day, you gotta trust the system, trust the coaches. … They made a play.”

Barkley had been stuffed from the 1-yard line on the last play of the first half when Taylor changed the play to a run with 14 seconds and no timeouts left.

“I gotta do a better job of getting in the end zone there,” Barkley said. “We gotta find a way of coming up with points there. But I’ll put that on me. The ball was in my hands on that play. I gotta find a way to score there. … They did a good job of holding me down, like staying on top. They knew the situation.”

Barkley (24-93, 4-5 receiving) erupted for 19 yards at the start of the fourth quarter and then 34 yards on the next carry at a time when the Giants had just surrendered the lead, and Graham Gano’s 29-yard field goal made it Giants 9, Bills 7 with 10:35 left.

“I think it just the rust was wearing off,” he said. “I haven’t played in three weeks. I haven’t really been practicing either. But that’s no excuse. I try to go out there and perform at a high level and make plays for my team and help us win and I didn’t do enough today.”

He thought he could have broken an outside zone on a 7-yard gain. “The person who I think I am, I’m supposed to make that person miss,” Barkley said, “but I didn’t.”

Barkley lost 2 yards on a third-and-1 on the Giants’ first possession. He had 5 rushing yards on his first eight attempts and had 12 rushes for 12 yards at one point. He had missed the previous three games with a high ankle sprain and it killed him that he couldn’t help.

“I feel like I was able to make the cuts that I normally made,” Barkley said. “I gotta start faster and be better for my team early in the game.”