The NY Giants’ playoff hopes now hang from a thread following a third consecutive loss, in blowout fashion, to Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens
The NY Giants entered Sunday still largely in control of their NFL Playoff hopes, but after a disastrous 27-13 loss to the Ravens in Baltimore, the third straight with just one game remaining, those hopes in the NFC East are hanging by a thread.
This was as one-sided a game as you will ever see in the NFL, and the Ravens exposed some of the Giants’ biggest flaws that could have far longer-reaching consequences than simply missing the playoffs this season.
Daniel Jones, when he had time in the pocket — which was rare — looked no worse for the wear from the ankle and hamstring injuries that kept him out of last week’s game, but he was sacked six times despite completing 24 of 40 passing attempts for 252 yards and a touchdown. The Giants’ issues on offense cut much deeper than anything Jones could or couldn’t do.
Just how inept was the Giants’ offense on Sunday afternoon? Following the Giants’ first possession of the second half, the Ravens had more first downs, 18, than the Giants had rushing yards, 16.
Jones’ touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard with 8:44 remaining was just the Giants’ second offensive touchdown since Week 14 against the Arizona Cardinals, breaking an eight quarter drought.
The Giants’ defense didn’t fare much better.
Baltimore produced 433 yards of total offense, Lamar Jackson accounted for 183 passing yards and two touchdowns along with 81 rushing yards, and the Ravens possessed the ball for over half the game.
Graham’s defense allowed runs of 32, 20, and 17 yards as the defensive line failed to generate any push whatsoever.
The Giants’ collapse over the fourth quarter of the season, now having been outscored 73-26 over the past three weeks underscores how far this team still needs to go to become a legitimate contender.
Here’s a look at the Giants’ who shoulder the most blame for Sunday’s debacle and dramatic fall from the highs of upsetting the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13 to barely competing against the Ravens:
GM Dave Gettleman
The Giants were certainly undermanned and besieged by injuries on defense, but never has it been more evident that the theory a team can “manufacture” a pass rush with three dominant defensive lineman without an edge presence was a doomed philosophy from the start, than it was on Sunday.
Against Lamar Jackson, who passed for XX yards and XX touchdowns while adding XX rushing yards, the Giants’ front-seven offered minimal penetration and consistently got bullied at the line of scrimmage.
Consistently, Jackson was able to hold onto the football in the pocket for upwards of five seconds or more while surveying the defense or buying time for the zone defense to dissolve so he could scramble for 8, 10, or 12 yards. Leonard Williams logged the Giants’ only hit on Jackson in the first half, with just under 1:00 remaining.
Injuries to Lorenzo Carter and Oshane Ximines notwithstanding, it was Dave Gettleman who built this defense, and the talent gap between it and the Ravens’ offense was wider than the New Jersey Turnpike.
Now that the Giants have effectively been eliminated from playoff contention and are riding a three-game losing streak into Week 17, perhaps owner John Mara and the organization can have the difficult conversation about how far away the Giants are at far too many positions to legitimately push for a Super Bowl in the near future.
CB Isaac Yiadom
Sunday was a reminder that on 31 other teams, Isaac Yiadom probably isn’t a starting cornerback.
On Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson’s touchdown pass to Marquise Brown on the game’s opening possession, Yiadom slightly over-pursued which created a soft spot in the zone coverage for an easy touchdown.
Later, Yiadom missed a diving tackle attempt on a Jackson scramble with 10:25 remaining in the second quarter that resulted in a Ravens first down that extended Baltimore’s third scoring drive of the game.
Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett
There might not have been a more disjointed display of offense in the NFL than what the Giants ran in the first half against the Ravens.
Only managing 18 total plays, the Giants rushed for just 16 yards and quarterback Daniel Jones passed for only 79 in the first half.
Jones, on one second quarter play, faked a hand off to no one and then airmailed a pass 20 yards over the nearest player deep down the middle of the field.
Sunday wasn’t an aberration, rather the latest in a line of poor performances from an offense that entered Sunday averaging the second-fewest points per game in the league, just 17.4 points per game and against the Ravens didn’t come close even to that paltry output.
Head coach Joe Judge is going to have a decision to make about Jason Garrett’s fate this offseason, but it is becoming glaringly obvious that this scheme is miscast for the Giants’ personnel and Sunday afternoon once again brought that issue to the fore.
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham
Just three weeks ago, following an upset victory in Seattle over the Seahawks, powered by the Giants’ dominating the line of scrimmage and harassing Russell Wilson all afternoon, Graham was widely considered possibly a top head coaching candidate this offseason.
Much of the bloom seems to have fallen off that rose over the past three weeks.
Sunday afternoon, the Giants’ defense offered little resistance and generated minimal pressure on Lamar Jackson, who looked much more like the reigning MVP of 2019 than a quarterback struggling to find consistency as he had been for much of this season.
For all the resources the Giants have invested along the front-seven the past two offseasons, this group was simply dominated all afternoon by the Ravens’ offensive line.
Graham would rank higher on this list, but at least a modicum of the Giants’ struggles on defense can be contributed to the lack of proven talent at two of the cornerback positions which can hamstring a coordiantor’s ability to blitz or play man-to-man defense.
What’s worse for Graham, is for the second consecutive week he has seemed to stay in a zone defense for far too long despite Baker Mayfield and Jackson surgically picking apart the secondary throughout the game.
Sunday, Graham had no answers, and his performance the past two weeks might lead to him having few — if any calls for head coaching interviews.
OG Shane Lemieux
On the snaps he was in the game for Sunday, the Giants’ rookie guard was overmatched, particularly in pass protection.
With the Giants trailing 20-3 in the third quarter and basically forced to try to throw their way out of a hole, the pass protection collapsed up front, starting with Lemieux.
Lemieux gave up several hurries and a sack to Ravens rookie defensive end Justin Madubuike.
RT Matt Peart
It doesn’t get much worse as far as offensive line play goes than rookie right tackle Matt Peart’s performance on a fourth quarter possession.
Jones was sacked on three consecutive plays, once by Calais Campbell, once by Parnell McPhee, and once by Chris Board, with all three charged to Peart.
The Giants’ offensive line has struggled mightily against stunts over the past three weeks but Sunday might have been rock bottom.
Peart was promptly replaced by Cam Fleming on the Giants’ first offensive snap following a Ravens’ roughing the punter penalty, and for good reason.
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ, and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL.