Giants Face Ravens With Nothing to Lose

On paper, the Baltimore Ravens’ game against the New York Giants feels like a perfect get-right game for a team that’s coming off its bye week and lost two of its past three games before it.

The Giants are essentially waiting for the season to end, as they’re now 2-11 and riding an eight-game losing streak. They’ve also dealt with a plethora of injuries this season, including to their best players such as defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II and offensive tackle Andrew Thomas.

It would be very easy for the Giants to just give up on the rest of the season, but they’re still playing for pride, and the fact they have nothing to lose adds a unique element to the matchup.

“Just stay motivated, stay focused on our goal and the task at hand each week,” linebacker Micah McFadden said Monday. “Obviously, we got a big one coming up here. But this is our job, and we got to go out and perform on Sunday and play for each other. I think that’s kind of the ultimate message at this point in the year. Play for the guy next to you and do your job as best you can so they can play faster.”

Sadly for New York, rough seasons have become the rule, not the exception. The Giants have now lost 10+ games in seven of the past eight seasons, with the lone exception coming in 2022 when they finished 9-7-1 and made a surprising run to the Divisional Round.

At this point, everyone in the organization just wants to see something positive.

“I’ve been part of some losing streaks like this and some winning streaks,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “I think you are part of a lot of different things when you do it for as long as I have. You get a little bit of roll; you start playing good. Turnovers are a big, usually a big factor in that. Situational football is usually a big factor in that. Whether that be red zone, third down, and that helps scoring points, or preventing points. I’ve been part of a few of them where we started out and had a fair amount of losses, finished strong. Again, every season’s different, every game’s different.”

As previously stated, though, the Ravens can’t afford to overlook the Giants. They’ve already lost two games against teams that will likely be picking in the top 10 – against the Las Vegas Radiers in Week 2 and Cleveland Browns in Week 8 – and a third one would be devastating.

For John Harbaugh’s squad, keeping focus is paramount no matter the opponent.

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