The Baltimore Ravens are doing their best to avoid any speculation that their game against the struggling New York Giants is going to be a blowout.
The Ravens (8-5) just finished a bye week and head to New Jersey to face the Giants (2-11), who are riding an eight-game losing streak and haven’t won at MetLife Stadium in seven home matches. season. To make matters worse, New York is in serious trouble with Tommy DeVito replacing the injured Drew Lock in the Giants’ latest quarterback change.
BetMGM has the Ravens as a 16-point favorite.
“The challenge is to play the team we’re playing, and this team has some really good players, and this team has a lot of motivation to play well,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “They’re going to be motivated to win the game. That’s how it is in the National Football League. There’s no difficulty in preparing for a team.”
The Ravens know well what can happen against supposedly weaker teams. They lost to Las Vegas (2-11) early in the season and lost by decision 29-24 to Cleveland (3-10) in late October.
“It helps us not let our guard down,” Baltimore safety Kyle Hamilton said. “You have to win every game in this league. It doesn’t matter the situation, the week, who’s on the other side, who’s not on the other side – if they have 11 guys there and he There’s a football, so you have to win the game.”
The Giants are in the midst of their second straight losing season and seventh in eight years. The current skid is one game short of the franchise record, which has occurred three times. The last one came in 2019 and led to the firing of Pat Shurmur. Current coach Brian Daboll is on the hot seat despite making the playoffs in his first season in 2022.
DeVito said the Giants are still a tight-knit group.
“The guys don’t have their headphones on,” he said. “The guys don’t talk to each other. So, this locker room is very tight. We always operate the same way, whether we win or lose. We’re very close. We stay like that. We just have to find a few more games like this on Sunday to go out and get a victory.”
Milestone game
Lamar Jackson is scheduled to play his 100th regular season game on Sunday. The Baltimore star leads the NFL in passer rating and rushing yards by a quarterback.
“It’s been a great ride, 99 and counting,” Harbaugh said. “Let’s do at least 100 more, but one at a time.”
Nabers’ goal
Giants leading receiver Malik Nabers won’t make the playoffs in his rookie season, but the No. 6 overall pick has 80 catches for 819 yards and three touchdowns. His total is 11 shy of the team’s rookie record of 91 receptions set by Odell Beckham in 2014 and tied by Saquon Barkley in 2018.
“I mean, as a receiver, that’s been your benchmark for over a year,” Nabers said. “In college, whether it’s in the league, you want to get to 1,000 yards. So yeah, 1,000 yards is on my mind, for sure.”
Musical Quarterbacks and Backups
Daniel Jones started the first nine games of the season for New York before being benched and cut in late November.
DeVito moved from No. 3 quarterback to the starting job for the game against Tampa Bay on Nov. 24, but injured his right forearm. Lock, the backup who was ignored after Jones was sent to the sideline, then started the next two games before injuring his heel last weekend in a 14-11 loss to the Saints.
DeVito will return this week as the starter. Lock is a long way to play, so recently re-signed Tim Boyle will likely be the No. 2 pick.
“Tim’s doing a good job. He’s catching up as quickly as he can,” offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said.
At the edge
Ravens tight end Mark Andrews needs a touchdown to break a tie with former running back Jamal Lewis for the most in franchise history. They both have 47 TDs.
Running back Derrick Henry has 15 touchdowns, tied for the Ravens’ single-season record. Ray Rice (2011) and Mark Ingram II (2019) also scored 15.
Defensive nightmare
Giants defensive boss Shane Bowen was coordinator at Tennessee when Henry played there. He also clashed with Jackson on several occasions.
“It’s always a headache throughout the week and even more so on Sunday,” Bowen said of Jackson. “Special player, MVP candidate every year.”
He said Henry, 30, was amazing.
“He’s an outside linebacker who plays the role of running back,” Bowen said. “He’s over 250 pounds. He runs hard. It’s going to be tough if you let him go down. Hard to bring him down. You’ve got to put hats on the ball. It’s going to take more than one guy. Probably the best ever one stiff-armed guy.”
