Oliver Stone titled his 1999 football movie Any Given Sunday for a reason. Because in today’s NFL, anything can happen, week to week. You can’t take anything for granted and assume a victory, ever.
But on paper, the 8-5 Baltimore Ravens will walk into Met Life Stadium as about two touchdowns and field goal favorites over the 2-11 New York Giants.
It has been decades since the Giants were this big of underdogs at home. In theory, the Ravens should cruise here.
At the very least, this is the easiest game on paper left for Baltimore. Next week, they host the 10-3, division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers. Then, they visit the 8-5 Houston Texans on Christmas Day.
The season concludes with a visit from the 3-10 Cleveland Browns, but one of those three wins came over the Ravens on October 27. So, of these last four games, Ravens fans should feel most confident about the one immediately coming up.
So what happened to “Big Blue?” Why are these Giants now so miniscule? On multiple levels, a lot has gone wrong for quite some time, but one must start by looking at the decision to Saquon Barkley walk.
Long-time former Giants offensive guard Justin Pugh certainly sees it this way.
“I think the Giants and Joe Schoen messed up with Saquon Barkley,” Pugh said in an exclusive with RG. “He was more than just a running back.
“If you’re paying receivers $35 million a year, you’re telling me you can’t pay Barkley $500K more per year to get into the $13 million mark? If the top receivers are worth $30 million, Saquon has to be in the $15 million range.
“When you have that drama for two years drag on and you draft guys early in the draft that aren’t All-Pros and you have to bench Evan Neal – and he’s probably not going to be with the Giants moving forward either – it starts to develop this track record where people are coming after (General Manager) Joe Schoen.”
Pugh is right on multiple points. Barkley is more than just a running back—he’s a true NFL MVP front-runner. Only a couple of weeks ago, the Ravens themselves witnessed firsthand the elite level of quality of Saquon Barkley.
The Giants wouldn’t pay him fair market value, so he joined the division rival Philadelphia Eagles, now 11-2. Barkley, who leads the NFL in rushing yards and yards per rush, is the driving force behind that.
The franchise-altering decision to let Barkley go was bad enough, but the fact (as Pugh points out) that it included so much protracted drama beforehand made it even worse.
The money that didn’t go to Barkley went to other players who aren’t as talented (nor as statistically productive) as him. They overestimated the idea of a “hometown discount” (Barkley hails from the Bronx), and now the tailback is all he can be in Philly.
Pugh also mentioned Neal, whom the Giants selected seventh overall in 2002. The former Alabama star has been oft-injured, very ineffective when healthy, and booed by his fans.
The less-than-professional manner in which he responded to those boos only made him even more disliked in New York. He’s worn out his welcome in the Meadowlands and can’t be labeled anything but a big bust.
Speaking of busts, quarterback Daniel Jones, taken with the sixth overall pick in 2019 out of Duke, was given his outright release late last month. Jones landed a week later with the Minnesota Vikings, but only on the practice squad.
So, to summarize, Schoen (who has been with the club since 2022) and his predecessors in the front office made some poor personnel decisions.
This roster is a total mess now, especially on offense, where they made awful blunders at the quarterback, offensive line (now among the worst in the NFL), and running back positions. And things have just snowballed for the Giants from there.
The Ravens’ defense has been noted for its struggles this season, but they should have no real fear of their opponents on Sunday. They might be Giants (yes, that is a reference to the Brooklyn-based alternative rockers), but they are a far cry from the NYG of the 1980s-early 2010s.
