In a true battle of manhood, perhaps it’s only, ahem, fitting that the aptly named Giants penetrated the Ravens defense so often Sunday our toes began to curl even watching at home on TV.
The Giants won, 30-10, in the Meadowlands.
But the Giants were more than just No. 1 in our Offensive Hog Index this year. And the Ravens were more than just No.1 in our Defensive Hog Index this year.
In fact:
- The Giants entered the game cranking out 5.15 yards every time they rushed the ball – a rate that put them on pace to become one of the nine best rushing attacks in the Super Bowl Era.
- The Ravens entered the game surrendering a mere 2.95 yards every time one of their opponents ran the ball – a rate that put them on pace to become one of the six best rush defenses in the Super Bowl Era.
But this cockfight proved no contest: the Giants ravaged the Ravens so graphically that the game should have drawn an NC-17 rating – No Contest After 17 Minutes.
New York man-beast Brandon Jacobs plunged in for two 1-yard TD runs in the first quarter. The two scores came against a league-leading defense that had allowed just one rushing TD in its previous nine games.
Clearly, this contest would be different than others the Ravens had played.
The Giants took a 20-0 lead when Eli Manning threw a 1-yard pass to Darcy Johnson halfway through the second quarter and nobody had to order another box of popcorn to find out the ending.
The Ravens actually played fairly well on defense in the second half – especially against the run. But then Giants homerun hitter Ahmad Bradshaw gave us the long-awaited money shot when he ripped off a 77-yard scamper in the fourth quarter, setting up New York’s 28th, 29th and 30th and final points of the unusually easy blowout of the AFC North division leader from Baltimore.
Sure, the Bradshaw run skewed the rushing averages a bit. But that’s the nature of NFL football – great running teams and great running backs always fight for 2, 3, 2, 1 and 4 yards. And then – bang! – Barry Sanders or Walter Payton or Jim Brown or Paul Hornung or Ahmad Bradshaw rips off a 60-yard run and the game suddenly changes complexion, from a limp fleshy color to a throbbing pigskin purple. Every inch counts in the record books.
But even given that historical standard, it was clear from the outset the Giants were ready to hog-tie the Ravens. Jacobs carried for 36 yards on his first carry and added 16 more yards and a TD on New York's first drive alone.
The G-Men ended the day with 207 yards on the ground on 33 attempts – an average of 6.3 YPA, a lofty average against a pedestrian team, let alone against what had been one of the stingiest run defenses the NFL has ever seen. It's even more impressive when you consider that the Giants were better on the ground (6.3 YPA) then they were through the air (6.1 YPA). That's rare in this day and age of pass-happy football.
But the Giants, as
we noted last week, are shaping up as a rare team by today's standards. And, in a game that purported to measure the manhood of two of the best teams in the NFL this year, the Giants rushed to the
head of the class.
