With the Ravens eyeing a season-best fourth consecutive win against the New York Giants on Sunday, below are a dozen thoughts and a prediction, each in 50 words or less:
1. Lamar Jackson made the 2018 comparison of having no margin for error in the postseason race while insisting his team “can’t just get on our high horse” after winning three straight. Adversity can help in the long run, but you wonder if complacency was an issue before the outbreak.
2. The 2012 Week 16 win over the Giants jump-started a Super Bowl run despite few local reporters or national pundits predicting victory at the time. However, that team needed only one win to clinch despite having lost three straight. The mojo is better now, but that playoff scenario was preferable.
3. Baltimore is again hurting in the secondary with Jimmy Smith out and Marcus Peters in danger of missing his second straight game with a calf injury, but expressed notions of “saving” hurt players for January carry little weight when you still need to get there. You can’t assume anything.
4. The Ravens have scored at least 34 points in three straight contests after failing to crack 25 in the previous five games, but the Giants rank ninth in points allowed and offer a defense tougher than Dallas, Cleveland, or Jacksonville. We’ll see if the offense’s movement toward dynamic territory continues.
5. The strength of the New York defense is inside with defensive linemen Leonard Williams, Dexter Lawrence, and Dalvin Tomlinson as well as middle linebacker Blake Martinez, making the Ravens’ recent trend of more edge runs for J.K. Dobbins the ideal counter. Space between the tackles could be limited.
6. Giants quarterback Daniel Jones probably isn’t keeping Wink Martindale awake at night, but the 2019 first-round pick offers more passing upside than Colt McCoy and averages 7.3 yards per carry. If he’s as healthy as reports indicated this week, the Ravens must be disciplined with their pressures.
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7. Though the Baltimore defense collected more sacks last week (five) than it had in the previous six games combined (four), overwhelming Gardner Minshew and 1-13 Jacksonville hardly qualifies as a breakthrough. Still, you’d expect a similar strategy of heavy blitzing against a young quarterback, especially one coming off an injury.
8. Jackson will be facing a tougher pass defense than last week, but Pro Bowl cornerback James Bradberry plays almost exclusively on the outside, which isn’t the focus of Baltimore’s passing attack. Versatile safeties Logan Ryan and Jabrill Peppers will be key in determining whether the Ravens go off again.
9. Sunday brings a meeting between two head coaches who were previously special teams coordinators, but the Ravens have the edge in that phase, per Football Outsiders. Activated from injured reserve this week, veteran special-teams standout Chris Moore has appeared in only one game all year.
10. You have to marvel at Orlando Brown Jr. being selected to the Pro Bowl — he was added as an alternate last year — despite moving to left tackle in early November to replace Ronnie Stanley. You also wonder how difficult it’s going to be to keep Brown around beyond next season.
11. I’m not big on critiquing Pro Bowl selections beyond my disdain for the overuse of the “snub” label, but tying for a league-high seven selections should calm any tired complaints about the Ravens not getting proper respect around the league. They get plenty.
12. As others have noted, Pittsburgh could provide the help the Ravens need over these final two weeks, but the Steelers are giving off a 2017 Orioles-like vibe. That team started the season very well before it became painfully apparent by the final month that the party was over.
Prediction: After watching contenders lose to woeful teams last week, the Ravens have no excuse to be overlooking the 5-9 Giants, who remain in the NFC East race. New York has played hard for Joe Judge, but the more talented Ravens will win 29-17 to move closer to a wild card.
