Giants-Ravens highlights: 5 plays that mattered in Giants’ 35-14 loss

The Baltimore Ravens stea-rolled the New York Giants, 35-14, on Sunday. Lamar Jackson sliced and diced through Shane Bowen’s wounded defense. Jackson exited the game with 10 minutes left. He finished 21 of 25 for 290 yards with five passing touchdowns and 65 yards on the ground. It reinforces his quest for a third MVP award.

The Giants turned to their fourth quarterback of the season after Tommy DeVito exited the game with a concussion. Tim Boyle finished the game 12 of 24 with 123 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.

The Giants are now 2-12 on the season and 0-8 at home. New York hosts one more home game on Dec. 29 against the Indianapolis Colts. In theory, the Giants should have an outside chance to win, but it’s too early to tell — we have no idea who will start at quarterback and what other Giants may find their way onto the IR by that point.

Here are the five plays that defined this game:

Play 1: Bateman’s huge game

Rashod Bateman finished with his first career multi-touchdown game. He finished with three catches for 80 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Jackson connected with Bateman on a 49-yard touchdown early in the second quarter. Bateman sold the post route and turned Jason Pinnock around, allowing the former Minnesota Golden Gopher to create ample space to catch the football and pirouette his way into the end zone.

Baltimore went up two touchdowns early. The Giants did respond with a 13-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that took eight minutes off the clock; the drive was assisted with more than 40 yards of penalties, including a defensive pass interference, hands to the face, and a roughing the passer penalty. Devin Singletary ended the drive with his fourth touchdown of the season, making it a 14-7 game toward the end of the first half.

Play(s) 2: More Bateman

Bateman caught his second touchdown in the two-minute drill with just over thirty seconds left in the first half. The Ravens went 80 yards on nine plays in under two minutes. The second most significant play of the drive was a 21-yard rush by Jackson, where the two-time MVP pulled his pants up while evading Giants’ defenders:

Four plays later, Jackson layered this beautiful pass to Bateman in the back of the end zone for his third touchdown of the game:

Another corner route outside the numbers that beat a safety; Dane Belton was Bateman’s victim on this play. This concluded an elite first half for Jackson. He finished the half 13 of 14 for 162 yards with three passing touchdowns and 55 yards rushing (13.4 YPC).

Play 3: The Ravens’ first touchdown

Brian Burns earned his eighth sack of the season on second-and-goal:

Burns quickly won inside with an inside spin move and located Jackson for the sack. This set up a third-and-goal from the Giants’ 13-yard line:

Mark Andrews found the perfect space in the middle of the Giants’ defense. Jackson delivered a sensational pass through a tight window to find Andrews.

The Giants responded with a nine-play, 44-yard drive that ended on a fourth-and-one stuff by the Ravens’ defense. Brian Daboll was irate after New York failed to convert the quarterback sneak.

Play 4: Third down defense

The Giants’ defense could not stop the Ravens on third down. The Giants were seven of eight on third down against Lamar Jackson. The final third down earned by Jackson was a 16 yard catch and run by Justice Hill on third-and-ten that led to this Justice Hill touchdown two plays later:

No one was in Hill’s area code as the Ravens took a 35-7 lead. The Giants’ defense might as well be a triage unit, as miscommunications and mistakes plague every level of the unit. This touchdown throw to Hill was Jackson’s final snap of the game with 10:52 left in the game.

Play 5: Another Ravens’ TD

Let’s go over another Ravens’ touchdown, shall we? Jackson’s fourth touchdown of the game went to rookie Devontez Walker. This was his first career reception and it went for six, as he got both feet in bounds:

An extra one!

The Giants completed their first touchdown pass since Week 9 in garbage time. Malik Nabers secured Tim Boyle’s first touchdown as a Giant, and this was Nabers’ first touchdown since Week 3, where he had two touchdowns against the Cleveland Browns:

Nabers did a solid job tracking the football, and he pinned it to his torso to secure it through the ground during this fourth-and-third play.