New York Giants: Biggest Storylines in Week 16 vs. Baltimore Ravens

The Giants are ready to put their Week 15 loss to the Cleveland Browns behind them and focus on getting ready for their Week 16 clash against the Baltimore Ravens. Here is a look at some of the key storylines to follow.

The Giants are still alive for the NFC East title. Yet, thanks to their two-game losing streak, they're going to need to win their remaining two games (against Baltimore and Dallas) and hope that front-runner Washington loses at least one of their games (Carolina and Philadelphia).

It's a long shot, but that's why teams line up and play the game on Sunday.

1. Daniel Jones’s Status

Last week, quarterback Daniel Jones reportedly wanted to suit up for the game against the Cleveland Browns only to have head coach Joe Judge and the team’s medics tell him no. But what will this week bring?

As always, Judge wants to see for himself how well Jones moves around in practice this week as the quarterback continues his recovery from a right hamstring strain and a sprained left ankle.

"In terms of Daniel himself, the standard remains the same. My concern with him has been his health, making sure he can go on the field and protect himself," Judge said.

"I still want to make sure we can put him out there and allow him to move around and protect himself. ... I’ve got to see Daniel move around. I want to make sure I make the right decision for him short term and long term."

Jones was limited in practice last week, just as he was leading up to Seattle when he ended up inactive. Keep an eye on how much he's able to do in practice this week, as if he can't get in at least one full day of work, that won't bode well for his return Sunday.

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2. Can the Giants Stifle the Ravens’ High Scoring Offense?

Last week the Giants held a Cleveland Browns offense that had scored a league-best 83 points in their two games prior to just 20 points, which under any other circumstances should have been enough to win—that is if the offense had been able to keep pace.

This week, things aren’t getting any easier for the Giants, who face a Ravens team that, over its three-game winning streak, is averaging 40.3 points per game.

Can the Giants defense hold the Ravens to 20 points or less as they did the Browns last week? Of the five losses by Baltimore, three of those games have come when the opponent held the ravens to 20 points or less.

But again, the Giants need to be able to score to keep up with the work they’re doing on defense, which leads to the next point...

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3. Breaking the Scoring Drought

The Giants have scored 20 or fewer points nine times this season and are 3-6 in those games.

Simply put, if they want to be competitive, they have to score.

If they want to show they’ve made progress on the offensive side of the ball, they have to score.

If they want to win, they have to score.

The Giants offense's problem right now is a lack of an identity and a playmaker who can strike fear into the heart of opposing defensive coordinators. Even when Saquon Barkley, their only multidimensional playmaker, was lost for the season back in Week 2, the Giants at least could lean on the legs of Jones.

However, with Jones dealing with injuries to both his legs, even that threat is gone, leaving it up to the coaching staff to figure out how to unplug the dam and get the points flowing.

“We’ve got to make a lot of improvement in these next two weeks to give ourselves a chance at anything beyond,” Judge said. “The goal at the beginning of this year was to be the best team we could possibly be at the end of the year. We still have a lot of work to do. We have two weeks of work to really get in. Our focus is on the Ravens this week.”

Okay, but can the offense produce more than 20 points in these last two games?

“Yeah, absolutely,” Judge said. “We have to do a good job as coaches putting them in the right position to do a good job of executing on the field, finishing plays and finishing drives. We’re absolutely capable of more points.”

Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how.

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4. Playoffs?

Simply put, if the Giants, who have downplayed their interest in the playoffs, really want in, they have to win this week to keep pace with the Washington Football Team, who squares off against Carolina this weekend.

If the Giants lose or tie, and Washington wins, it’s all over in the NFC East. And maybe that would be a blessing in disguise for New York as their offense has struggled to score this year, their 17.4 points-per-game average just slightly better than the 14.7 points per game average recorded by the cellar-dwelling Jets.

“I don’t think our progress as a team is going to be measured necessarily on making the playoffs. I’m focused right now on Baltimore this week,” Judge said.

“This is obviously a team that we knew when the schedule came out early on, this would a great challenge for us. One thing that I am very interested in as a coach is seeing how our team responds to challenges, how they are able to adapt to different game plans and different styles of play from opponents, see how they work going forward.”

Judge has yet to put on the rose-colored glasses this season when it comes to his team and notes that while the playoffs are important, one has to be realistic.

“I’m a firm believer in just keeping our sights on what the immediate goal is, and the long-term goal will take care of itself,” he said.

That immediate goal is improving and building up this team. And for that reason, perhaps it would be best if the door finally closes on any talk of a playoff berth since there’s probably zero chance the Giants, were they to get into the playoffs, would be able to go very far.

I’m not downplaying playoffs. It’s the National Football League. We’re all here to compete. We’re all here for the highest prize in all of sports. We all know what that is. At the same time, I’m a firm believer in just keeping our sights on what the immediate goal is, and the long-term goal will take care of itself.

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5. Slowing Down Lamar Jackson

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the third dual-threat the Giants will face this season and perhaps the most prolific of the group.

Jackson is 12th in the NFL in rushing and is his team's leading rusher with 828 yards, not quite close to the 1,206 yards he recorded in his MVP season last year, but still something the Giants have to think about as they draw up their game plan.

The good news is the Giants have a blueprint for these dual-threat quarterbacks, which has produced modest results. Seattle's Russell Wilson ran for 45 yards on seven carries, and Arizona's Kyler Murray ran for 47 yards on 12 attempts.

What did the Giants do to slow down Murray, who is more like Jackson than Wilson?

It all began in the defensive secondary, where the Giants played a mixture of Cover 2, Cover 3, and Cover 4 schemes to keep the ball in Murray's hand while also keeping eyes in the backfield in case of a quarterback run.

This is similar to what the Giants did against Wilson, but the most significant difference is that the Giants played it more straight as far as what they were showing pre- and post-snap against Murray than they did against Wilson, whom they confused with different pre- and post-snap looks.

The important thing with Jackson is to slow down his threat as a runner rather than try to take it completely out of the equation. If the Giants can do that, they’ll give themselves a fighting chance to pull this one out.