The New York Giants Week 6 matchup with the Baltimore Ravens was a watershed game for the franchise. The 24-20 comeback win took the team to 5-1 and put them in the driver’s seat of the NFC Wild Card race. There are plenty of Giants takeaways from this game, as the team, Saquon Barkley, and head coach Brian Daboll all impressed in MetLife Stadium during this Giants-Ravens tilt. So, after the big win, let’s take a look at the three biggest Giants Week 6 takeaways.
3. The Giants are for real
Heading into the Giants Week 6 matchup, non-believers could easily make up reasons that the Giants' 4-1 record was more smoke and mirrors than actually the work of a real NFL playoff contender.
The Tennessee Titans hadn’t gelled yet. The Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears are terrible. And anything can happen in those London games.
But this week in the Giants-Ravens game, there were no extenuating circumstances.
The Ravens are a good team. They are well-coached, have lots of talent, and Lamar Jackson is a top quarterback in the league. This was a game between two legit teams, and may the better team win.
On Sunday, the Giants were the better team.
The Giants were down 20-10 heading into the fourth quarter, just like they were down to the Titans, Panthers, and Packers. And, once again, the Giants played their best when it mattered most and came back to get the win.
The first Giants Week 6 takeaway is that a playoff spot is now the Giants’ to lose. The team’s next four games are against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, and Detroit Lions. Those are four winnable games, and the team has two against the lowly Washington Commanders after that.
At this point, 10 wins are absolutely attainable for Big Blue, and while that won’t win the division with the high-flying Eagles dominating the NFC East, it will get them into the postseason, which was inconceivable just a month and a half ago.
2. Saquon Barkley is as smart and selfless as he is talented
If you’ve watched enough NFL football in your life, you’ve seen plenty of running backs slide near the goal line to run the clock out with a lead. That said, you’ve also seen ten times that number trot into the end zone without thinking twice.
When Giants running back Saquon Barkley slid down at the 2-yard line with just over a minute left (and a wide-open end zone in front of him) it angered a lot of fans. Another touchdown on the day would have been great for fantasy managers, and that TD would have hit the over for the betting fans.
Saquon Barkley was asked what he'd say to people who have him on their fantasy team after he stopped short of the end zone at the end of the game 😂
"I got a job to do and that's to do whatever I can to help my team win a football game." pic.twitter.com/2DxH6fsSod
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) October 17, 2022
However, none of that happened because Barkley made the safe, smart, and selfless play.
If the running back trots in for the touchdown, the Giants likely go up 11 with 1:15 or so to play. In the best-case scenario, that’s a nearly impossible deficit for the Ravens to come back from. With the way the Giants defense played Sunday, it was not going to happen. Still, going down there ensured the victory for his team in the Giants-Ravens game, so that’s what Barkley did.
Plus, the Giants haven’t signed the 2018 No. 2 overall pick to a long-term contract yet, so he’ll be a free agent this offseason. When looking for the biggest deal possible, every yard and touchdown counts for a player, so Barkley likely cost himself some money on the open market during that play.
And the fact he made it anyway is a testament to what kind of player Saquon Barkley is, and that’s one of the biggest Giants takeaways of all.
1. Brian Daboll is the coach of the year
After six weeks, Brian Daboll should have the NFL Coach of the Year Award wrapped up. In hindsight, he actually won the award in Week 1, when he went for two with just over a minute left against last year’s regular season AFC champions Tennessee Titans.
That was the moment Daboll won over his team, and that group of players has played out of their minds for him ever since.
Even the staunchest Giants supporters have to admit that, on paper, this team has no business being 5-1 after Week 6. The organization has won just 22 games in the last five seasons, and it’s not like it got a franchise-altering quarterback in the draft this year.
The team is winning because Daboll took the same basic pieces that Joe Judge (and Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo) had and figured out how to get the best out of them. And for that, the final Giants Week 6 takeaway is that he will win the 2022 NFL Coach of the Year Award.
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