Knee-Jerk Reactions: Ravens 35 Giants 14

The Ravens beat the New York Giants 35-14 in Week 14. RSR staff react to the win here.

Rob Shields

In what was expected, the Ravens handled the Giants with ease.

And, as a bonus and as we all hoped for, the Ravens were able to rest key guys in the 4th quarter, so they should be very rested for the Steelers game next week.

Lamar Jackson put in an MVP-level performance and almost had another perfect passer rating. Rashod Bateman had his first multi-TD game and Mark Andrews set the franchise TD record.

For the most part, it was all good stuff today. The problem was that, coming off a bye and playing a really bad team, they had 12 penalties for over 110 yards.

Several of them were DPI penalties that were committed simply because of unawareness. It continues to be a problem, especially for Brandon Stephens.

They can’t beat good teams committing that amount of penalties.

Another positive today was the special teams. They had been horrid all year but did well today. Outside of the penalties, probably the most disappointing thing about today was that Justin Tucker didn’t get a chance to kick any FGs. At least he made his extra points easily, but still.

Derek Arnold

What we wanted was to see the starters sitting most of the fourth quarter. We got that, and we should count that as a win. However, they could have been resting much earlier if not for some penalties that led directly to Giants touchdowns. Those were the kind of things we hoped to see cleaned up over the bye, and to see New York basically march down the field thanks to laundry was quite dispiriting.

The kinds of mistakes made in New York – the penalties, the Jackson fumble when a touchdown seemed imminent – will ruin them against Pittsburgh next week.

Can they avoid them? That’s the question.

Jared Pinder

The Ravens destroyed the Giants, but that isn’t much of a surprise. This game did have sloppiness, mainly the Lamar fumble early on and some rough penalties on defense. In the end, they still crushed these zombified corpses masquerading as a football team in the Giants. There aren’t a lot of huge takeaways, but for the love of everything good in this universe, please stop with the penalties.

Also, I think it’s time to stop playing Stephens so much. Nate Wiggins had a good game today and he needs to be starting more because I am so done with Stephens not being able to find the balls in the air and getting penalties because of it.

Now we prepare for the biggest game of the year at home on Saturday.

Kevin McNelis

You never want to overlook an opponent, and it was good to see the Ravens take a businesslike approach to this one. By the second half, it felt like we were back to the stress-free feelings of the BYE.

If I have to nitpick, the penalties still need to get under control. That said, they encountered little resistance en route to another Jackson 5. Let’s Hope they keep making it look that easy when they take on Pittsburgh.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Toe Tap Tez’s TD. That catch damn near lifted the roof off of Jimmy’s Famous Seafood,

Chris Schisler

There’s not much to say about this game. The Ravens were supposed to win the game and they did. It was a classic get-right game for the Ravens. When two of your losses are to the Raiders and the Browns though, beating a bad team is a bit of a relief.

Outside of a Lamar Jackson fumble the offense was great. Jackson had five touchdown passes. It was nice to see Rashod Bateman connect with him on two of them.

The officiating was incredibly frustrating. There was one Giants scoring drive completely aided by penalties. The Nnamdi Madubuike roughing the passer was an especially annoying call.

Overall it was a get-right game. All that matters is beating the Steelers on a short week.

Darin McCann

The Ravens took care of an overmatched opponent and saw the return of their explosive offense in a resounding 35-14 win over the Giants. This is the kind of sentence that should probably bring a significant yawn when discussing a contending team, but… Raiders? Browns?

This was a good one. Let’s take it for what it was, celebrate another electric performance by quarterback Lamar Jackson and all walk a bit taller tonight.

What we saw today was the best-case scenario. Embrace it.

 Chad Racine

The Ravens took care of business just as expected. However there were mistakes, mainly pass interference penalties that need to be cleaned up. I think this was the perfect game to ease back into action to prepare for the next stretch.

I have to say that I’m not a fan of Keaton Mitchell being inactive. I think he could be a major factor if given the opportunity for the remaining games.  Of course the coaches have more information than I do.

The post Knee-Jerk Reactions: Ravens 35 Giants 14 appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/12/15/knee-jerk-reactions/knee-jerk-reactions-ravens-35-giants-14/