The Giants can be convinced that they will never be ready to compete for a place in the playoffs this season.
Not with the first year head coach, Joe Judge, in his place, feeling his new team, finding out what he has on the list and what he has to add.
Not with defender Daniel Jones trying to find his footing in the second season of the NFL.
Not with a rebuilt offensive line and a lot of new pieces in defense.
And certainly not once they lost Saquon Barkley, their best player, following a knee injury at the end of the season, at the beginning of the second game of the season.
But as the Giants (5-9) play the Ravens (9-5) on Sunday, they will face the sober reality of an amazing and unexpected missed opportunity.
Two weeks after sitting in the driver’s seat to win the NFC East, feeling good about their season and playing games in December with post-season consequences for the first time since 2016, the Giants face Sunday’s elimination .
If the Giants lose to the Ravens, who are favored by 10 points, and the Washington football team beats the Panthers (4-10), then Washington would win the division and the Giants would play a trash season final at home against the Cowboys on January 3. .
When and if this scenario happens, the Giants will only blame themselves.
“I don’t think our progress as a team will necessarily be measured in the playoffs,” the judge said Monday. “I do not minimize the playoffs. We are all here to compete. We are all here for the biggest prize of all sports. We all know what this is. At the same time, I am firmly committed to looking only at the immediate goal and the long-term goal will take care of itself. “
The problem is that the long-term goal, a playoff bar, now seems like a long shot – largely because they can’t score points, which is a prerequisite for winning in the NFL.
The Giants’ faulty offense has produced 13 points in the last two games – a 20-6 home loss to the Browns last Sunday night and a 26-7 home loss to the Cardinals a week earlier.
Only the Jets, with 14.7 points per game, got fewer points than the Giants, who have an average of 17.4. And sharing the same sentence with the Jets will never lead to a compliment.
The math for the Giants on Sunday is simple: they will almost certainly not win if they get the average production score this season.
The Giants scored 20 or more points in just six of their 14 games. In four of their games, they failed to reach double digits. They scored 30 points in one game.
Instead, the Ravens, who averaged 28.8 points per game, scored 40 and 47 in each of the last two games. They have scored 30 or more points in seven of their 14 games and have failed to score at least 20 just twice.
“As coaches, we need to make sure that we always put our players in the right position,” the judge said on Thursday. “It simply came to our notice then. Number two, when the pieces are there to be made, we have to make them. We put ourselves in position several times. For a variety of reasons, we need to move on and finish our drives better. When we get there, we have to come up with points. “
Team coach Freddie Kitchens, who acted as offensive coordinator last week as Jason Garrett worked through the COVID-19 protocols, said Thursday that he believes the offense is “close,” but quickly added, “But it’s almost impossible. matter. It’s about the end result. “
The giants know exactly what they are facing with the Ravens, who will hit them in the mouth as soon as they get off the team’s buses.
That’s what John Harbaugh’s teams do: they play more physically than you. And most often he wins.
The task for the giants starts right there: be more physical than the crows on both sides of the ball or watch your flickering hopes of winning the NFC East.
“We need this to be the most physical game of the year,” Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said on Thursday. “That’s what Baltimore wants. That’s what you want it to be. Let’s see who stands at the end. “