New York Giants Week 15: Keys to Beating the Baltimore Ravens

Beating the Baltimore Ravens will be difficult, but the New York Giants can take three steps to improve their chances.

Dec 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll coaches against the New Orleans Saints during the second quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The New York Giants saw likely their easiest chance to earn a third win slip away from them in a close loss to the New Orleans Saints last Sunday, and now they’re set to cross paths with the toughest opponent remaining on their schedule in the visiting Baltimore Ravens. 

Baltimore will be coming to MetLife Stadium fresh off their bye week and ready to avenge their last loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 13 on a deteriorating Giants team. In a competitive AFC picture, they are currently slated with the fifth-best record at 8-5 and are chasing the Pittsburgh Steelers for an even higher seeding with a division crown for the AFC North. 

The Ravens may also want to flip the tables on the last time they met the Giants during the 2022 season. The Giants upset them in East Rutherford 24-20 on a fourth-quarter comeback that gave New York one of several one-score victories that season and helped propel them to a 5-1 start to the year. 

Not only are the Ravens led by one of the most talented quarterbacks in the entire NFL, Lamar Jackson, who is chasing another MVP-caliber season and ranks among the top five arms in numerous stats, but they are also decked out with plenty of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. 

That starts with running back Derrick Henry, who is currently competing with former Giants star Saquon Barkley for the league’s rushing title and overall single-season rushing record, but also extends to several pass catchers that give Baltimore one of the most productive offenses in the game. 

Entering Week 15, the Ravens own the third and first overall offenses in terms of total points and yards, respectively, and sit with the top five teams in eight combined passing and rushing categories. They can move the ball at will and are the best team in the NFL for punching in the points, averaging 29.5 per game with 46 total touchdowns and a 75 percent red zone efficiency rating. 

On the defensive end, they also boast a crowd of playmakers who can get to the quarterback, swallow up routes, and make plays on the football to force turnovers. It all combines for a successful product that has carried over from season to season, and the Giants are going to have a lot on their plate as they’ll be counteracting a very depleted roster.

Nonetheless, there are a few keys to this matchup that New York can utilize to try to compete and stay with the Ravens. Let’s take a deeper look at the best three that will ease the burden of facing a football heavyweight.

Bring the Crisp Tackling

Arguably, the second biggest problem plaguing the Giants' defense after the relentless injuries that are piling up as the season draws to its conclusion is the complete lack of solid tacking by anybody in Shane Bowen’s ranks. 

Of course, none of the ailments are helping the cause as New York is having to insert less experienced players into the mix, but still, the Giants have exhibited one of their worst tackling efforts in recent memory.

They’ve whiffed on over 13 percent of their tackle attempts this year, which has added up to 125 missed tackles, allowing opposing backs to feast on Sundays. The Giants’ inability to wrap up cleanly at the first and second levels has also amounted to 905 yards after contact this season, which is the second-highest total behind the Cleveland Browns.

Those numbers did slightly improve last weekend against the New Orleans Saints, as the Giants recorded just seven missed tackles and held the opponent to their first sub-100-yard game in nine weeks. Still, several starting defenders have collected over double-digit missed tackle rates, and that is not acceptable for any NFL defense to be successful.

The Baltimore Ravens will be coming into town with a dangerous duo of ball carriers that could take advantage of this weakness. They’ve already tallied over 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground between quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry, who can both run with agility and strength to create more on missed tackles forced.

In fact, Henry has been one of the league’s best at running off defenders, forcing 78 missed tackles this season and counting. That’s the third most collected in the first 14 weeks, and he has added 587 yards after contact, which distances himself from the competition in that category.

Henry has two games this season with 100+ yards after contact, one of which came in week 12 against the Chargers. He also has earned 70+ yards in three of the last six contests and four games with over five missed tackles forced, which he could match against New York. 

Whether it’s him or Jackson who has great side-to-side abilities, the Giants will have to replicate their showing against New Orleans and bring the crisp tackling to the field against Baltimore. 

It will be very hard to remain in the game with how good the Ravens are in both phases if you don’t at least tackle the fundamentals and take away one of those elements. 

The injuries are surely taking their toll on the Giants' defense, which is losing guys left and right to the growing injury report that includes a few defensive linemen and inside linebackers. However, they figured it out last Sunday with a collection of backups and practice squad guys who played valiantly for the situation. 

Without taking the first step of cleaning up their tackling, it’ll be a long afternoon. The Ravens will dominate the time of possession through some gap runs, and the Giants will have little chance to make things interesting. 

This was supposed to be a strength of Shane Bowen’s teams, and they must show it in the final few games if he has any chance of retaining his job for 2025. 

How will New York Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen scheme to take away the Ravens' deep passing game? / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Take Away the Deep Passing Game

With the Giants' secondary diminishing amid injuries, the Baltimore Ravens are likely to want to attack them early and often with their dynamic circle of skilled players who can do damage at all different levels.

The Ravens' receiving corps is comprised of four players who have collected at least 33 receptions for 384 yards and four touchdowns each. With this work, which includes 29 total touchdowns and an average of 243.4 aerial yards per game, Baltimore is among the league’s leaders at letting it fly, with top-five status in nearly every category of that production. 

Lamar Jackson’s man threats this season have been slot receiver Zay Flowers and perimeter man Rashod Bateman, who combine for almost 1,500 yards and nine scores by themselves and haul in an average catch of 14.4 yards or better. The others include their flank of tight ends in Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely who can both take it deep with the best of them in the NFL. 

According to PFF’s data, the Ravens are one of the most active teams in executing in deep passing looks. Their gunslinger in Jackson currently ranks among the top-10 position players in several categories within deep passing plays of 20+ yards, including attempts (54), completions (18), yards (619), and big-time throws (13). 

While he has no problems gashing an opponent with his legs, that mobility allows Jackson to skip outside of the pocket, evade pressure to extend plays and allow these vertical shots to open up downfield. Four of his passing touchdowns have come at distances of 20+ yards or greater, and only 8.6 percent have been anywhere near getting picked off. 

On the receiving end, Jackson’s guys can come down with them. The Ravens have three wide receivers with a target share above 21.1 percent for deep passing. Those players have caught over 35 percent of those throws for 530 yards and four touchdowns, with an average catch between 25 and 41 yards. 

The Ravens have a fully balanced offense and will likely mix it up at the start of the game. Still, if they find that the passing game is working to their advantage, it could become a huge factor in the matchup, especially since the Giants are one of the worst teams in the NFL in third-down stops of 10+ yards, and that issue has followed them over the last couple of seasons. 

The Giants' secondary has performed better in zone coverage schemes this season in terms of grading, but six of their top rotation players have still allowed opponents to hail in over 71 percent of their targets. Four of them average double-digit yardage per reception, and as a team, they have given up 437 yards after the catch. 

Despite missing a handful of starters, including Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott, the cornerbacks held their own and didn’t allow more than 60 yards to a receiver. However, that was a less decorated Saints receiver corps than what they’ll see against Baltimore because they were missing players and eventually lost quarterback Derek Carr to a hand injury. 

New York must keep the Ravens’ aerial attack at bay and limit the deep passing opportunities they’ll look for throughout the game this Sunday. They’ll need to force a battle of the short game and contain it to long drives that can weary out the offense and play to their strengths if things do reach inside the red zone. 

It’ll take the aforementioned tackling as well since the Ravens can burn a team in various ways, but if they run wild on the Giants and put on a passing clinic, the scoreboard could get very one-sided before the afternoon is up. 

In a game that’s already handing the visitors a lofty advantage because of injuries and talent, that’s the last thing the Giants want to show to their home crowd in one of their final two homestands.

Tommy DeVito will get the start on Sunday for the New York Giants against the Ravens. / Chris Pedota, NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Get the Passing Game Going

The Ravens are a team with few weaknesses, but the Giants might be able to capitalize on them in one area: moving the football through the passing game. 

Baltimore is by no means a team that opponents want to test with crazy passing designs, given its crew of veteran playmakers who know how to make plays on the football. It has the coverage instincts and is among the top-20 teams in the NFL in turnovers forced, with seven interceptions this season. 

That said, the Ravens defense is much more approachable in the passing realm than they’ve shown on the ground. Per Pro Football Reference, while they are in the elite third of the NFL in opposing rushing metrics, they rank 23rd and 22nd in total production, respectively. That dropoff is carried by their standings of 25th or worse in the correlating passing categories. 

The Ravens unit is currently dead last in passing yards allowed, 25th in passing touchdowns, and 21st in average yards per throw. They haven’t always been the greatest in late-down situations either, posting the 24th-worst third-down conversion rate of 42.9 percent and a 56.1 percent red zone scoring percentage. 

In their first 13 games this season, Baltimore’s opponents have surpassed 321 yards passing five times, albeit they have a 4-1 record in those same contests. Their 6.5-yard average play is almost two yards greater than what the Giants have scored this season, and it’s helped teams be more potent in the red zone, with seven games of at least 25 points.

As other teams have done recently, the Ravens are going to zero in on the Giants' rushing offense, which has been more of their lifeline, and look to cancel that out. In return, the Giants must figure out how to get the ball moving through the quarterback and take advantage of their weaker coverage.

The Giants' attack might be impacted by Tommy DeVito's return to the helm after Drew Lock was benched for heel and left arm injuries. DeVito has shown in recent starts that the team can execute short and conservative game plans behind him, which can complement the rushing to build sustained drives and score. 

There was not nearly enough of that in Week 14 against the Saints whose defense isn’t all-worldly, and the play calling they did happen was peculiar and risky at times. Add to that the Giants couldn’t find their No. 1 target in Malik Nabers until the third quarter and the Saints had time to adjust and limit some of his opportunities. 

Yet, they saw what he could do late with five catches for 79 yards, a few of which came close to scoring grabs, including the two-point conversion he made to bring the game to its final score of 14-11. 

To make Nabers happy and help their offense, they’ll need to find ways to get him the ball early and make him a focal point throughout the game. 

It takes a multifaceted offense to compete with the Ravens, and the Giants might need to have that in the stat sheets, but they have it on paper with a few weapons still remaining in their huddle. And what’s wrong with coming in ambitious, so long as that ambition doesn’t go the other direction?

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See Also

• Giants Counting on QB Tim Boyle to Be Ready for Sunday If Needed

• Five Alarming Trends Established by the Giants This Season

• Malik Nabers Dishes on the Challenges of Dealing With Another Giants QB Change

• Giants ILB Micah McFadden Quietly Having Career Year

• Giants Have Best Chance at Top Draft Pick Per New Simulation

• New York Giants Still Rank Among Top 10 Most Valuable Sports Franchises

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