It was a garden variety three-touchdown road victory for the Baltimore Ravens over another road-grated NFC slappy. The New York Giants never really had a chance.
I had my “Liberty DeVitto > Tommy DeVito” tweet all ready to go on BlueSky but the Giants’ backup-to-the-backup quarterback Tim Boyle was suddenly in the game faster than Malik Nabers could escape the blue tent and provide a mismatch against the Ravens’ secondary.
It was a 35-14 thumping with all sorts of good news, including the post-game help from the Philadelphia Eagles against the oncoming Pittsburgh Steelers, who picked up a fourth loss.
A few themes:
Lamar Jackson is really freaking amazing. He might not win a third NFL MVP honor but 34 touchdown passes and three interceptions is otherworldly.
The Ravens’ defense worries me. It should worry everyone.
The penalties, man! The penalties!
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“The Ravens are the most penalized team in the NFL,” the announcers have been pointing out early in the broadcasts every week this season. And then the team goes out and backs it up, adding another dozen yellow flags like confession confetti.
The Baltimore Ravens are 9-5 and don’t want to be a wild card next month.
And the 10-4 Steelers are coming to town in five days with a chance to won the AFC North in Charm City.
We’re all trying to see some kind of form and consistency that would lead to the kind of confidence it will take to defeat Josh Allen and the Bills in Buffalo and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Kansas City.
So, then, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on your home turf with a home game and the division title at stake and then go to Houston and wrangle the Texans for Christmas dinner.
You don’t really learn about your mettle by beating the Giants in front of fans wearing 2-12 bags over their heads. Sure, the “little giants” were feisty at times on fourth down and made a few plays, but this was truly the junior varsity on a cold day. The 16.5 points on their heads at home was a biblical number and the Ravens still covered with Lamar on the bench after throwing five touchdowns and barely breaking a sweat.
Number Eight even got to go into the phone booth for 21 yards on a two-minute drill that felt like an August scrimmage test drive. Lamar was laughing at them when they all ran the wrong way.
8And then he hit Rashod Bateman with a touchdown throw that was Canton worthy.
And the Giants literally had players getting injured just trying to tackle Derrick Henry.
Even Justin Tucker had a perfect day in the swamps of New Jersey.
But the Ravens will need to kick it into another gear as business will pick up this weekend and on Christmas evening. The team remains remarkably healthy at this juncture of a long season, and head coach John Harbaugh got a pre-game wish answered with a blowout that got Lamar and several other starters safely off their feet just after 3 o’clock on Sunday in the Meadowlands.
No style points are granted or necessary when you win by three touchdowns. But now it’s about a strategy to beat the Steelers on Saturday with the AFC North on the line.
Isn’t this the way it’s supposed to be: Pittsburgh at Baltimore on national television with high stakes and drama?
In the grand tradition of the late, great TV Repairman, Phil Jackman, I offer a few observant observations from my Sunday couch:
8What is more worthless? The sideline reporter at halftime “interviewing” the head coach or the pre-game jock backrub “insights” from the field with a disinterested sweaty player on a headset?
I saw all of the empty seats at Met Life Stadium. It got me thinking that when your tickets go unused now, you don’t even get to keep the full unused ticket as a souvenir of the awfulness. I still treasure my 1981 Baltimore Colts ticket stubs!
Why do pre-game shows go to live sets in frozen places with drunk, screaming fans? It doesn’t make for a very good broadcast, CBS…
I wouldn’t call the Ravens defense “dirty” but they collectively get there late and too often quite high on quarterbacks – and mostly get away with it. And they already lead the planet in penalty yards, which can easily be traced to negatively altering the mostly-disturbing (and self-inflicted) five losses and now finding themselves in a hole and needing to play catch-up with the Steelers this Saturday in a classic showdown.
Just look at the Giants touchdown drive in the second quarter as a prime example of what can’t happen moving forward: Nmadi Madubuike with late hit on DeVito, leaving his feet. Brandon Stephens with an arm bar. Odafe Oweh grabbing a face mask. And forty one penalty yards later, the holiday-spirited Ravens gifted a lame, late first half touchdown to New York. Better not do that in Orchard Park or Arrowhead next month on a cold night.
And speaking of ornery, it feels like Derrick Henry has coached the stiff arm to Lamar and Justice Hill, who both employed Jackson’s momma’s advice to run angrier. Isaiah Likely ran over a linebacker. Mark Andrews got involved early. The offense that was record-setting a few weeks is certainly good enough to win games on the road in January.
But, first, a win at home against the Steelers on Saturday would start to give us reasons to believe.
