Report Card: Giants 24 Ravens 20

Give the 2022 Baltimore Ravens credit for this: They continue to find new and fascinating ways to blow football games.

This wasn’t the late defensive collapse against Miami. Nor was it the slow, painful death to the Bills. No, this was a penalty-draped, late-turnovers, lack-of-threats-on-the-outside, waste-of-a-Kenyan-Drake-masterpiece kind-of-disaster. See? New and fascinating, right?

Let’s get to the grades.

Offense

Overall: D+

Their first two possessions lasted a combined 19 plays, generated 79 yards and netted exactly… let’s see… carry the three… zero points. They followed that with an eight-play, 89-yard touchdown drive, totaled 406 yards of offense and produced at 7.0 yards per play. But they couldn’t get out of their own way, through penalties or coughing it up at the end, and they simply made things way too easy for the Giants’ defense.

Quarterback: D

There was some good, and we’ll get to that. But there was a lot of bad, including two bad late turnovers and some missed passes. For the good, Lamar Jackson ran the ball well, getting his team 77 yards on the ground on only seven carries, including a highlight-reel 25-yarder in the third quarter. His touchdown throw to Mark Andrews was a perfect touch throw, leading Andrews to the ball over his shoulder in tight coverage.

The interception was a disaster from the start, as Jackson seemingly mishandled the snap, raced to avoid pressure and threw a desperation throw to Patrick Ricard that was easily picked. The fumble was avoidable, as well, as Jackson was holding the ball loosely in a crowded pocket. Not his best show, overall — particularly when it counted.

Running Backs: A

Kenyan Drake was tremendous, rushing for 119 yards on 10 carries and a 30-yard touchdown. Drake looked faster than the Giants’ defenders all game, and had four or five runs that were truly jaw-dropping. JK Dobbins didn’t produce as much as Drake in limited touches, but he didn’t have much room. His injury bears some concern going forward. Ricard had two false starts in the first quarter. Not ideal.

Receivers: C-

Mark Andrews is the reason the score is this high, as he put up 106 yards on seven catches and that beautiful touchdown. Isaiah Likely had a nice 19-yard catch and run on an early crosser, and Demarcus Robinson grabbed a 15-yard catch to convert a third down. Josh Oliver made a crazy catch on a diving, one-handed grab early, and made another nice pluck in the fourth. Devin Duvernay only had one catch for 14 yards, and nearly connected for a touchdown later. Not a lot of production here.

Offensive Line: B

They only gave up two sacks and the Ravens had some great rushing gaps. Morgan Moses had two early false starts, and left with an injury. Another reason for concern. Ronnie Stanley played a lot of snaps at left tackle, and Patrick Mekari manned the right side after Moses went down. They both looked good, though Mekari did give up the pressure that resulted in the late strip-sack. Kevin Zeitler got beat by Dexter Lawrence for a sack, but also did some nice work in the run game. Ben Powers and Tyler Linderbaum stood out on some pulls.

Defense

Overall: B

They gave up 17 points int he second half, but I have a hard time putting this on the defense. The Giants only had 238 yards of offense, the Ravens got four sacks and the Giants only had 3.8 yards per play. They also held Saquon Barkley under four yards per carry. This unit was victimized by bad field position, and some bad penalties.

Defensive Line: A

Justin Madubuike had another strong performance, with five tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. His sack wasn’t a huge loss, but he brought down Daniel Jones on a scramble where it looked like it could have been a big play. Rookie Travis Jones had a sack on the Giants’ first offensive play of the game, and was good throughout, producing four tackles. Calais Campbell also got a sack and four tackles, and Broderick Washington also put up three tackles. This was my unit of the game for the Ravens.

Linebackers: C

Patrick Queen was pretty solid this game, getting a sack and seven tackles. He didn’t produce many splash plays, but he was solid. I felt like Malik Harrison was very good — possibly his best game in the NFL. He had five tackles, one for a loss, and I made three notes on him for the day in a positive way. Odafe Oweh was not great, and his penalty on third down in the third quarter extended what would be a field goal drive for the Giants. Josh Bynes made some solid run stops, but got turned around on Daniel Bellinger’s late touchdown reception.

Defensive Backs: B

Marcus Peters did a good job breaking up two passes in the second quarter, one of which was in the end zone. He also grabbed a late fourth-quarter interception that could have changed the game, but he was correctly flagged for holding. Marlon Humphrey got beat on a Darius Slayton first-down reception, but it did look to be zone, so that guilt could have been in a few directions. Humphrey did make a nice play on a late fade to Slayton. Chuck Clark had a good game near the line, getting six tackles and he hurried Jones into an incompletion on third down in the third quarter. Damarion Williams got beat a few times in the fourth quarter, but he did make a nice play in the third to force an incompletion. Kyle Hamilton had a big third-down tackle in the second quarter, but a Giants penalty wiped it away. He did not make much impact.

Special Teams: C-

This wasn’t a great showing by a typically-good unit. Tucker boinked a 58-yarder off the uprights, but that happens, even to him. Jordan Stout had two punts — one was a bad touchback, and the second was a nice one inside the 20. AJ Klein made a less-than-stellar penalty to give the Giants good field position. The kick coverage unit gave up a 47-yard return.

Coaching: D+

This team is 3-3 when they were in position to be 6-0, and at some point, the coaching staff  has to take some of that responsibility. On the opening drive, the Ravens drove to the Giants 36 and had a third-and-8. They ran a zone-read and Jackson lost six yards, pushing them out of field-goal range. Why? Devin Duvernay had one catch and zero rushes, with Rashod Bateman sidelined again. Why?

Patrick Ricard was the target for Jackson on that awful fourth-quarter interception. That is not ideal, even in a scramble-drill situation.

Disclaimer: Mike Macdonald had another strong performance, and that shouldn’t get lost in the disaster that was this game. They had a sound approach to slowing down a very good Giants running attack, and kept the pass-game in front of them, while generating pretty good pass rush throughout. This defense seems to be on a good trajectory. He deserves some credit.

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