Stumbling Giants may miss playoffs
After losing five of seven, they need a win and help new week
The defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants picked a terrible time to play their worst football of the season, and now they’re on the brink of missing the playoffs.
A 33-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday left New York in a desperate position heading into the final week of the season.
“The next game, if it’s our last, whatever happens, we just want to leave with pride,” running back Ahmad Bradshaw said.
It’s come down to that for the Giants (8-7), who fell out of a tie atop the NFC East with their fifth loss in seven games. New York was coming off a 340 defeat at Atlanta, and this one was almost as ugly.
“You saw the scoreboard,” quarterback Eli Manning said. “It wasn’t real pretty, but that’s what can happen in football.”
The Giants gave up a whopping 533 yards and gained just 186. Baltimore had the ball for 39 minutes, 21 seconds to 20:39 for New York.
“Obviously we have a bad formula going on right here,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “We’re having trouble stopping people and our offense doesn’t hold the ball at all to give the defense a chance to catch their breath. We’ve had two games in a row, pretty much the exact same scenario.”
Joe Flacco threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns for the Ravens (105), who ended a threegame losing streak and secured their second straight division crown.
“It feels good,” wide receiver Torrey Smith said in the upbeat locker room. “I’m just glad we finally got it done.”
The Ravens led 24-7 at halftime and cruised to the finish behind a short- handed defense that sacked Manning three times and limited him to 150 yards passing.
The victory also assured the Ravens of a home playoff game.
“We know what’s at stake. We want the AFC championship and it starts tonight,” safety James Ihedigbo said. “Playoffs started for us. We’re not looking at regular season. Playoffs started for us and we’re going to keep on playing.”
Flacco completed 25of-36 passes, ran for a score and did not throw an interception or lose a fumble.
New York will need a win over Philadelphia next week and help from other teams to squeeze into the postseason
Said Manning: “We knew we had to play our best football at the end of the season to get into the playoffs and we haven’t done that. When you’re not playing your best, teams can come out and embarrass you.”