The Baltimore Ravens are doing their best to avoid all the speculation that their game against the struggling New York Giants is going to be a blowout.
The Ravens (8-5) are coming off a bye week and are heading to New Jersey to face the Giants (2-11), who are riding an eight-game losing streak and have not won at MetLife Stadium in seven home games this season. To make things worse, New York is very banged up with Tommy DeVito replacing the injured Drew Lock in the Giants’ latest quarterback switch.
“The challenge is playing the team that we’re playing, and this team has 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 the way it is in the National Football League. There’s no difficulty in getting ready for a team.”
The Ravens know well what can happen against supposed weaker teams. They lost to Las Vegas (2-11) early in the season and dropped a 29-24 decision to Cleveland (3-10) in late October.
“It helps us just not let our guard down,” Baltimore safety Kyle Hamilton said. “You’ve got to win every game in this league. Doesn’t matter the situation, what week it is, who’s on the other side, who’s not on the other side — if they’ve got 11 guys out there and there’s a football, then you’ve got 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 shy of the franchise record, which has happened three times. The last 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 still are tight-knit group.
“Guys don’t have their headphones in,” he said. “Guys are not not talking to each other. So, this locker room is very tight. We still operate the same way, whether we’re winning or losing. We’re very close. We stay that way. We just have to find a couple more of those plays on Sundays to go out and get a win.”
