The Baltimore Ravens are trying to avoid the idea that their game against the struggling New York Giants will be an easy win.
The Ravens (8-5) are coming off a bye week and will travel to New Jersey to play the Giants (2-11), who are on an eight-game losing streak and haven’t won at MetLife Stadium in seven home games this season.
To make matters worse, New York is dealing with injuries, and Tommy DeVito will replace the injured Drew Lock in the latest quarterback change for the Giants.
BetMGM has made the Ravens a 16-point favorite.
“The challenge is playing the team that we’re playing, and this team has really good players, and this team has a lot of motivation to play well,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “They’re going to be motivated to win the game. That’s the way it is in the National Football League. There’s no difficulty in getting ready for a team.”
The Ravens are well aware of what can happen against teams that are considered weaker. They lost to Las Vegas (2-11) earlier in the season and were beaten 29-24 by Cleveland (3-10) in late October.
“It helps us just not let our guard down,” Baltimore safety Kyle Hamilton said. “You’ve got to win every game in this league. Doesn’t matter the situation, what week it is, who’s on the other side, who’s not on the other side — if they’ve got 11 guys out there and there’s a football, then you’ve got to win the game.”
The Giants are having their second consecutive losing season and their seventh losing season in eight years. The current losing streak is one game away from tying the franchise record, which has happened three times before, the last time in 2019, leading to the firing of coach Pat Shurmur. Current coach Brian Daboll is under pressure, despite leading the team to the playoffs in his first season in 2022.
DeVito said that the Giants remain a close-knit team.
“Guys don’t have their headphones in,” he said. “Guys are not not talking to each other. So, this locker room is very tight. We still operate the same way, whether we’re winning or losing. We’re very close. We stay that way. We just have to find a couple more of those plays on Sundays to go out and get a win.”
