Even with the Giants’ improved play – they looked better than the score would indicate against Cleveland last week – it is going to be very difficult to prosper against a Ravens team that is healthy and trending upward again.
WHAT: Week 16, Game 15 vs. New York Giants
WHEN: 1 p.m. (EST); Sunday, December 27
WHERE: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore (70,745)
RECORDS: Giants, 5-9; Ravens, 9-5
LIFETIME SERIES (regular season): Ravens lead, 3-2. The Giants and Detroit Lions are tied for the fewest games played against Baltimore with five regular-season meetings. At M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens are 2-0 against New York, outscoring the Giants by a 70-28 margin; the teams never met in Memorial Stadium. The teams collided in Super Bowl 35, with Baltimore winning, 34-7, following the 2000 season. The Ravens and Giants have met in 12 preseason games, seven of them in Baltimore, with the Ravens winning seven of those contests.
LOCAL TV and RADIO: WBFF-TV, Channel 45, and WIYY-FM, 97.9
REFEREE: John Hussey
About the Giants
–The “New York Football Giants,” as they are officially known, is the team’s name because the team was founded in 1925 while baseball’s New York Giants, which would move to San Francisco in 1958, was still operating. Of the league’s current 32-team lineup, the Giants are the fourth-oldest continuously-operating National Football League team, and only two remain in its original city of origin. The other is the Green Bay Packers. The Arizona Cardinals began as the Racine Cardinals upon the league’s founding in 1920, and the Chicago Bears started its life span in Decatur, Illinois.
—The Giants’ franchise was born out of the hardscrabble world of Tim Mara’s youth. Mara, the team’s original owner, grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side of New York, quitting school at 13 and working as a theater usher and street-corner newsboy to earn money for his family. He eventually befriended many of the New York bookies, a relationship that made him quite wealthy. In 1925, at age 38, Mara was offered a franchise by a league that needed a big-city team to anchor it and help it grow. Even though he didn’t know much about football, Mara accepted when a local boxing promoter turned down the same offer, so he bought the new franchise for $500, translating into $7400 today. Mara ran the team until his passing in 1959, and the team was then turned over to his sons, Wellington and Jack.
—When it comes to players, coaches, and administrators who spent the bulk of their careers with the Giants, the franchise can claim 21 principal Pro Football Hall of Famers. That’s the fifth-most in league history behind Chicago (30), Green Bay (26), Pittsburgh (24) and Washington (22). An additional 11 Hall of Famers played for the Giants for short periods of time in their careers, including quarterback Kurt Warner, kicker Morten Andersen, running backs Larry Csonka and Jim Thorpe, and wide receiver Don Maynard.
–The Giants are one of only 11 NFL teams to have played more than 1000 regular-season games and one of only three squads to have posted 700 or more victories. The Giants’ total of 702 wins ranks third behind Chicago (775) and Green Bay (767). New York’s 700th-lifetime win came last month in a 27-17 home win over Philadelphia just before the Giants’ bye week. Against the AFC North this year, the Giants lost at home to Pittsburgh in a Week One Monday-night game and beat Cincinnati on the road in Week 12. Last week, at home against Cleveland, the Giants lost, 20-6.
—In 95 complete seasons since their 1925 inaugural campaign, the Giants have made 32 playoff appearances, the second-most in league history behind the 33 posted by Dallas and Green Bay. The total includes nine wild-card berths and 23 division titles, including at least one first-place finish in every decade since the 1920s except one (1970s). The Giants have won eight total championships (third-most behind Green Bay, 13; and Chicago, nine), including four Super Bowls in five appearances. The Giants have appeared in a record 19 NFC Championship Games or its pre-merger equivalent, the NFL title contest. The Giants have lost a league-record 11 times at that stage of the playoffs.
–When the Baltimore Colts were part of the NFL, they were aligned into the Western Conference before the AFL-NFL merger for competitive-balance reasons, while the Giants were in the Eastern Conference. Because of that, the teams surprisingly met only ten times, including the 1958 and 1959 championship games, both of which Baltimore won; the Colts won seven of the ten games. After 1974, the teams didn’t meet again until 1990, the Colts’ seventh season in Indianapolis. Only three of the ten pre-move meetings, including the 1959 title game, were held at Memorial Stadium, with the Colts winning two of the three. Baltimore won its last four meetings with the Giants before moving to Indianapolis, outscoring New York by 109-14.
—The Ravens-Giants series is a short one, in that they are from opposite conferences. With five lifetime regular-season meetings, the only other series as infrequent as this one from the Ravens’ standpoint is their all-time resume against the Detroit Lions; the Ravens are scheduled to go to Detroit in 2021. In a 1997 game at since-demolished Giants Stadium, the Ravens got their first-lifetime road win – they had gone winless in eight road games during their 1996 debut season – on a last-second Matt Stover field goal, 24-23. Ironically, Stover broke into the league as a Giant in 1990 and won a Super Bowl ring on injured reserve before moving to Cleveland as a Plan B free agent.
–A Ravens 2004 home victory over the Giants (37-14) featured the defense’s domination of rookie quarterback Eli Manning, who was held to a 0.0 passer rating before being pulled after three quarters for veteran backup Kurt Warner. In 2012, a slumping Ravens team put on black jerseys and blasted the visiting Giants, 33-14, kicking momentum into gear that would result in their Super Bowl 47 win.
–The Ravens’ Super Bowl 35 win over the Giants represents New York’s only loss in five Super Bowl appearances, having won Super Bowls 21 (vs. Denver), 25 (against Buffalo), 42, and 46 (both vs. New England). Ironically, Super Bowl 35 took place in Tampa, site of this season’s upcoming Super Bowl (55), and it was broadcast on the same network on which this year’s game will be shown (CBS). Baltimore’s defense – one of the greatest single-season units the league has ever seen – pitched a shutout that night, with the Giants’ only points coming on a Ron Dixon kickoff return, part of a three-touchdown salvo inside of one minute that served as the fastest three-consecutive-touchdown run in Super Bowl history.
–This year’s Giants started the season as a hard-luck outfit, getting off to a 1-7 start, with six of those losses coming by ten or fewer points. But since then, the team’s fortunes have changed, with wins in four of their last six games, including four straight at one point, putting them in contention in the subpar NFC East Division. After Sunday’s game in Baltimore, the Giants will close their regular-season campaign at home against Dallas.
–The Giants have a lot of holes on their roster, and with the constant shuffling of players, team stamina has been a big issue. This team seems to tire late in halves and in games; it has allowed over 100 points in the second and fourth quarters this season. New York’s most successful quarter has been the first, but it holds a mere 68-55 edge in that period. Like most bad teams, it is not a balanced club, for the Giants have run the ball 359 times and attempted to pass it on 493 occasions (including 42 sacks allowed). Quarterback injuries and ineffectiveness have helped result in just nine passing touchdowns all year (against ten interceptions), while the defense has allowed 20.
–Along with the two Los Angeles teams, the Giants are one of three clubs to have posted an even turnover ratio through 14 games. New York has both turned the ball over and taken it away a total of 20 times; ironically, both sides of the ledger include ten interceptions and ten lost fumbles. The Giants’ ten interceptions have come from eight different players, with one having run his pickoff back 46 yards for a touchdown. But the Giants have thrown ten on offense, while their quarterbacks have combined for just nine touchdown passes. The Giants’ ten fumble recoveries have come from ten different players, but their opponents have actually put the ball on the ground 25 times, getting most of them back before New York players could pounce on them.
—Through 14 games, the Giants have committed 70 accepted penalties, the fifth-fewest in the league and a total that is 18 fewer than that of the Ravens. The Giants have been penalized for 554 yards, the league’s fourth-fewest. New York has committed 14 false starts and ten holding fouls, relatively low totals for this late juncture of the season. The defense has jumped offsides only three times and has committed just two roughing-the-passer infractions. Individually, only four Giants have been called for more than three penalties, with right tackle Cameron Fleming leading the team with five (three false starts, two holds).
—Through Week 15, the Giants ranked 31st (next-to-last) in total offense (16th rushing, 29th passing, 31st scoring at 17.4 points per game, bottomed only by the crosstown Jets). New York’s red-zone offense ranks 31st in touchdown rate and 26th in third-down conversions. Its possession-time average is just over 29 minutes per game. The Giants are averaging only 17.9 first downs per game (31st). On defense, New York ranks 12th overall (sixth vs. rush, 21st vs. pass, ninth scoring, allowing 22.2 points per game). The Giants’ third-down defense ranks tied for 22nd in the league, but it is tied for the league’s fourth-best rate in preventing touchdowns in the red zone.
–Rookie head coach Joe Judge, who will turn 39 years old on New Year’s Eve, is the 21st head or interim head coach in Giants franchise history, a relatively small number for a team that has been playing since 1925. Judge’s three immediate predecessors – Ben McAdoo, Steve Spagnuolo, and Pat Shurmur – all held the position since 2016, and all three posted losing records in the wake of the successful tenures of Jim Fassel and Tom Coughlin; that pair were the only two head coaches the team employed from 1997-2015.
–Judge has spent the last eight seasons with the New England Patriots as an assistant special teams coach, special teams coordinator, and wide receivers coach. Judge has coached in seven AFC Championship Games, winning four of them and earning three Super Bowl rings from Super Bowls 49, 51, and 53. His college coaching career was capped with two Bowl Championship Series national titles with Alabama in 2009 and 2011.
–Second-year starting quarterback Daniel Jones, a 2019 first-round pick from Duke (sixth overall), has been beset by an ankle sprain and hamstring injuries this year. Still, he has tried to play through them, trying to display his trademark mobility. It didn’t help earlier this month against Arizona, as he fumbled three times and was sacked on eight plays. Jones has completed 62.6 percent of his passes for eight touchdowns, nine interceptions, 37 sacks, and a rather average 78.2 passer rating.
–It is probably more likely that backup signal-caller Colt McCoy, an 11-year NFL veteran on his fourth team, will get the start in Baltimore. McCoy, a 2009 Heisman Trophy finalist and 2010 third-round pick (85th overall) by Washington out of Texas, is second to Boise State’s Kellen Moore (now the Dallas offensive coordinator) in games won by a Division I-A college quarterback. McCoy completed 19 of 31 passes and was sacked just once against Cleveland last week. For the season, he has completed 40 of 66 passes for a 75 rating. In two career games against Baltimore (both losses), he has completed 50 percent of his passes with one touchdown, four interceptions, three sacks, and a 45.1 passer rating, his lowest against any opponent in his career.
—On the ground, Penn State standout Saquon Barkley was the Giants’ 2018 first-round pick (second overall), but a torn ACL in Week Two this year ended his season. Had posted two 1000-yard campaigns and scored 17 rushing and six receiving touchdowns. Since then, the starter has been Clemson product Wayne Gallman, a member of the Tigers’ 2016 national championship team, taken in the fourth round (140th overall) of the 2017 draft. Gallman has ground out a career-high 590 yards for a 4.5-yard average and a career-high six of the Giants’ 12 rushing touchdowns. Jones is the team’s second-leading rusher, averaging 7.3 yards on 55 carries, with multi-team veteran Alfred Morris – who has played for three NFC East teams – averaging 4.7 yards-per-carry. Dion Lewis has only 27 carries, but two of them for touchdowns.
—The Giants are one of the few teams that have a tight end leading it in catches. Fourth-year Mississippi product Evan Engram, the Giants’ 2017 first-round pick (23rd overall), paces the squad with 54 receptions, a 10.6-yard average, and one of the team’s nine receiving touchdowns. Wideouts Sterling Shepherd and Darius Slayton are next with a respective 49 and 46 catches; Slayton has a team-high 15-yard average and a team-leading three receiving touchdowns. Multi-team NFL veteran Golden Tate has 35 grabs and a pair of scores, with Lewis and Gallman each getting 19 catches out of the backfield. Lewis has one touchdown.
—The Giants’ offensive line has not done a very good job in either run- or pass-blocking situations, allowing 42 sacks and pacing an average-at-best running attack. But it is a relatively stable group, with very little re-shuffling necessary. Rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas, the fourth overall pick out of Georgia, has missed just one game, as has seventh-year right tackle Cameron Fleming (Stanford). The rookie left guard is Shane Lemieux, a fifth-round pick (150th overall) from Oregon who has played in ten games, and the right guard is Kevin Zeitler, now in his ninth NFL season. Zeitler, who has started all 14 games this year, has seen plenty of the Ravens, having played for Cleveland and Cincinnati in his career. The center is third-year undrafted Nebraska product Nick Gates, who has also made every game.
–The Giants’ defensive line has remained largely unaffected by the team-wide injury malaise, starting Dalvin Tomlinson at the nose and Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence on either side of him. Williams, a former New York Jet drafted sixth overall in 2015 and traded crosstown to the Giants in 2019, has a team-high 8.5 sacks, along with 11 tackles for loss, 24 quarterback hits, and 49 tackles, the team’s fifth-most. As a Jet, Williams had a sack in his only game against Baltimore. Lawrence was part of a dominant national-championship line at Clemson and was drafted 17th overall in 2019. He has eight sacks and four quarterback hits. In the middle, Tomlinson – a four-year veteran from Alabama taken with a 2017 second-round pick (55th overall) – has 43 tackles, 2.5 sacks, seven tackles for losses, nine quarterback hits, and four pass breakups.
—At the linebacker level, fifth-year middle linebacker Blake Martinez (Stanford) is one of the most omnipresent tackling machines in the entire league with four consecutive seasons of 100 or more tackles. With 128 total stops this year, he has been among the NFL’s top five most of the season; he is currently tied for fourth. He has two of the team’s 34 sacks, along with eight tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, and five pass breakups. Devante Downs and Carter Coughlin are the other linebackers starting at present because rookie Tae Crowder – “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 2020 Draft, the last player selected – is gone for the year (hamstring).
—Injuries have beset—The Giants’ secondary, but it does feature players with a lot of flexibility. Fifth-year corner James Bradberry (NFL-high 17 pass breakups), who has a team-high three interceptions, missed last week’s game with close-contact COVID, but he is expected to return to face the Ravens. His backup, rookie slot man Darnay Holmes, was also out with a knee injury; the status of both for the game in Baltimore is in question. Rookie safety Julian Love (53 tackles, fourth on the team), who played a lot of corner at Notre Dame and was a Thorpe Award finalist, was called upon but ended up playing more safety against the Browns. The two main safeties, veterans Jabrill Peppers (77 tackles, 2.5 sacks, eight tackles for losses, ten pass breakups) and ex-New England and Tennessee starter Logan Ryan, are healthy. Ryan, who had 13 tackles in last year’s playoff win at Baltimore, is second on the team with 81 tackles, and he also has four quarterback hits, nine pass breakups, and three forced fumbles. But at corner, Xavier McKinney moved from backup safety to take Bradberry’s spot, while Isaac Yiadom (five breakups) stayed at the opposite corner.
—The Giants’ return and coverage units are rather middle-of-the-road outfits, but the team is not afraid to use marquee players on special teams. Versatile linebacker/safety Jabrill Peppers, a former Cleveland Brown, has handled most of the punt returns, running back 12 and calling for ten fair catches while averaging 11.8 per runback. Dion Lewis is the main kick returner, having handled 17 attempts for a 23.2-yard average. The punt coverage team has allowed nine yards per return, and the kick-return unit has yielded 22.5 yards per runback, including a 103-yard touchdown.
–The Giants have stable kicking. 11-year veteran Graham Gano broke into the league as a Ravens’ training-camp body. Gano’s 102 points lead the team by a wide margin–a testimony to how poorly the Giants have fared in finishing off drives. He is having an outstanding year, hitting 28 of 29 field goals and 18 of 19 conversions. His only miss was from beyond 50 yards, and he has made his last 27 consecutive kicks. Punter Riley Dixon, who is also the team’s holder, is a five-year veteran out of Syracuse. Dixon was taken 228th overall in Denver’s 2006 Draft before being traded to New York in April 2018. Dixon has just four touchbacks and 26 coffin-corner kicks out of 57 punts, but he has had one blocked this year. Dixon is gross-averaging 44.6 yards per punt and netting 39.1.
Prediction
In 2004, the Giants came to Baltimore with a rookie quarterback named Eli Manning and got blown out by the Ravens. Manning was held to a 0.0 passer rating. In 2012, Big Blue came back and again got annihilated by a Ravens team that was actually slumping at the time. In short, the Giants don’t have good memories of playing teams from Charm City – remember 1958, 1959, and 2000? Despite their good form of late, they probably won’t have a great day this time, either.
Even with the Giants’ improved play – they looked better than the score would indicate against Cleveland last week – it is going to be very difficult to prosper against a Ravens team that is healthy and trending upward again.
Baltimore 31, New York Giants 13
