Jobu reviews the Giants week 16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

So I’m pretty sure the Giants aren’t going to make the playoffs this season, and that’s because they no longer control their own fate. Had they won out against the Ravens and the Eagles, they’d be in. Now that they put up yet another stinker against the Ravens, they need to beat the Eagles, the Redskins need to beat the Cowboys and they need the Vikings to lose to the Packers and the Bears to lose to the Lions. Thanks, guys.

There’s not a lot that can’t be said about this game that I didn’t say about their week 14 no-contest against the Atlanta Falcons. Needing a big win against a good team, the Giants came out completely flat, got nothing done on offense and didn’t stop anyone on defense. Hey, at least They managed a couple of touchdowns in this debacle, although the second one came well after this game was over.

The Ravens jumped out to a 14-0 lead early and never really looked back, as Eli and the offense floundered completely when it was clear they needed to step up to pick up the defense. This was one of those season defining games that, although they’d been struggling, the Giants would normally rally to win late and save the season. It simply wasn’t there in this one.

Eli had a terrible game, getting held to 150 yards on 14-28 passing. Some of his incompletions were his fault, but he spent a lot of the game getting harassed by a Ravens defense that, I think, must have bought off the Giants O-line. Guys were in Eli’s mug seemingly before the ball was even snapped, and he was sacked three times. While the Giants running backs had good ypc averages (4.8 ypc as a team), they were down by so much so early that they had to abandon the run and rely solely on Eli’s arm. The Ravens are too good on defense for an unbalanced attack to succeed. Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, meanwhile, were held to 3 catches for 21 yards, and those were all by Cruz!

Not to be outdone in terribleness by the offense, the Giants defense basically went on strike for the second straight game. Maybe this will finally get Perry Fewell fired, as many were calling for his head before the Giants improbable championship run last season. By many, I mean my friends and me… I assume others in the area felt the same way. The Ravens ended up with 533 yards of total offense. Bernard Pierce and Ray Rice BOTH rushed over 100 yards and Joe Flacco went 25-36 for 309 yards and 2 TDs. When Flacco Tuesdays is lighting up your defense, something is seriously wrong.

So now it comes down to Sunday. If they Giants get lucky, and all the whacky things that need to happen for them to make the playoffs actually happen, all bets are off. As awful as this team has been the last couple of weeks, things seem to turn on their heads when the Giants make the playoffs. All we can do is watch on Sunday at 1:00 PM, and hope for the best.

Let’s go Packers, Lions and Giants… Oh my….

Most Valuable Giants

Whoever replaces Perry Fewell next season.

Boxscore – 12/23/2012

Featured image courtesy of: Patrick Smith/Getty Images