EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — At some point, these Giants comeback victories will stop surprising people.
Julian Love and Kayvon Thibodeaux forced consecutive Lamar Jackson fourth quarter turnovers on Sunday to roar back from 10 points and stun the Baltimore Ravens, 24-20, at MetLife Stadium.
Brian Daboll’s Giants (5-1) eclipsed the club’s 2021 season win total and did it with defensive coordinator Wink Martindale getting the better of his longtime Baltimore (3-3) team.
Thibodeaux, the No. 5 overall pick of April’s draft, strip-sacked Jackson for a Leonard Williams fumble recovery to seal the Giants’ third straight win with 1:30 to play.
Saquon Barkley then intentionally avoided scoring a touchdown to help the Giants run out the clock.
Trailing by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter, Daniel Jones directed a 12-play, 75-yard drive and hit tight end Daniel Bellinger with an eight-yard TD pass. That narrowed Baltimore’s lead to 20-17 with 6:01 to play.
Then Jackson threw an unthinkable interception to Love with around three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Jackson heaved a third-down throw off his back foot, after a bad Baltimore snap, while pressured by safety Xavier McKinney. Love stepped in front of Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard and returned the pick 27 yards to Baltimore’s 13-yard line.
Four plays later, Barkley leapt into the end zone for a one-yard TD and the 24-20 lead with 1:43 to play.
The Ravens and Giants traded field goals in the third quarter. So Baltimore took a 13-10 lead to the fourth.
Then Baltimore jumped out to a commanding 10-point lead on a Jackson eight-yard TD pass to his favorite weapon of the day, tight end Mark Andrews.
John Harbaugh’s team outgained the Giants, 406-238, including 211-83 on the ground. But the Giants had other ideas of how this game would end.
The Ravens only led, 10-7, at halftime, despite outgaining the Giants, 256-90, including a rush yards advantage of 121-16.
Ravens running back Kenyan Drake opened the scoring with an untouched 30-yard TD run up the right side at 9:26 of the second quarter. Martindale’s defense only had 10 players on the field for the play. McKinney was yelling at the sideline after.
That was the second time this season the Giants defense has had only 10 players on the field for an opponent’s TD, including Ezekiel Elliott’s one-yard TD in the third quarter of the Giants’ 23-16 Week 3 loss to Dallas.
The Ravens’ TD drive happened right after Daboll conservatively punted on fourth and two from the Baltimore 46 in a scoreless game.
Impressively, however, the Giants answered immediately on the following drive to tie it up at seven apiece.
Gary Brightwell set it up with a 47-yard kick return that featured jukes and broken tackles. Then Jones capped a 10-play, 53-yard drive with a four-yard TD pass to rookie receiver Wan’Dale Robinson with 3:31 left in the half.
Jones was 3-for-3 for 37 yards and a TD on third down on the drive. He hit Darius Slayton for an 18-yard completion on third and 14, connected with Robinson for 15 yards on third and 12, and delivered to Robinson on the left side for the walk-in TD.
Tucker made a 34-yard field goal with 1:45 remaining in the half. And Patrick Queen sack-fumbled Jones on a Giants Hail Mary attempt to end the half.
The game was scoreless into the second quarter after Justin Tucker’s 56-yard field goal attempt rang off the left goalpost late in the first. Love had broken up a Jackson pass for Demarcus Robinson in the end zone just prior.
It marked Baltimore’s first scoreless first quarter of the season.
The Ravens outgained the Giants, 94-22, in the opening quarter after receiving the game’s opening kickoff. But Martindale’s defense held firm at the 42 and 38 yard line, respectively, to keep Baltimore off the board.
That would foreshadow late stands by Martindale’s defense, which refused to fold.
