Someone is going to win the NFC East by default, by backing in, or by the accidental kindness of another team.
Indeed, the smelly underbelly of the NFL will send a team to the playoffs because the rules make it so, not because they earned it by any normal metric. In fact, the winner will host a playoff game against a much better football club, because the rules make it so.
And yes, the Giants could still be that team. Despite losing their last three games - including a bludgeoning in Baltimore on Sunday - the Giants have about a 24 percent chance of winning the darn thing. In this year of oddities and inverted logic, Big Blue had a 14 percent chance before they got clubbed by the Ravens, according to The New York Times, which posted a neat little chart on their website with all the playoff permutations.
Not that the G-Men earned this unlikely hole in the league through which they can sneak into the playoffs. They showed up on time against Baltimore, but weren't at all ready to play. Lamar Jackson and his muscular offense shoved the Giants around all day, scored a TD without breaking a sweat, and were up 14-0 before the Anthem had ended. They outgained the Giants in the first half 282 yards to 95, including 155 on the ground, while Big Blue possessed the ball for all of seven minutes in the first half.
Daniel Jones didn't get sacked in the first 30 minutes, but made up for it by getting sacked six times in the second half. The Giants' QB clearly isn't his normal nimble self, and was practically a tackling dummy in the pocket. Their skeletal running game didn't help keep the pressure off the passer, gaining just 54 yards on the ground and four first downs all game. Meanwhile, the Ravens rumbled to 249 rushing yards, gaining a robust 6.2 yards per carry, and saw three players gain at least 75 yards each in Gus Edwards (85), Jackson (80), and JK Dobbins (77).
After gashing Big Blue's formerly stout rushing defense, Jackson had ample time to toss the ball to a slew of receivers, completing 17 of 26 passes with two touchdowns, zero picks, and a 111.5 passer rating. By sagging contrast, Jones finished with an 84.6 rating.
After watching the game it feels fitting that the Giants (5-10) and Ravens (10-5) have inverted records, as they are two teams going in vividly different directions. No one wants to toy with Baltimore in the playoffs, while some NFC squad is drooling over the prospect of visiting the quiet, cavernous football mausoleum called MetLife Stadium on Wild Card Weekend. To show you the fun house distortion of the NFL playoff chase, the Ravens could lose to the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday and easily miss the playoffs with a 10-6 record, while the Giants could stumble in with a 6-10 mark, and turn the NFL's celebrated parity into a parody.
But as Gio and Jerry Recco noted Monday morning, it's better to have a playoff shot than not. What use is an 8-7 record if you've been bounced from January football? Washington blew their chance at clinching the division crown by losing ugly to the Carolina Panthers, a team rarely mistaken for the '85 Bears. And the team that seemed most lost and damned to gridiron purgatory - the Dallas Cowboys - is now playing with sudden precision and purpose, whipping the Eagles on Sunday to join the 6-9 soup.
So it's fitting that the G-Men must topple America's Team, those streaking Cowboys, at home, and hope the Eagles upend Washington on Sunday. Only in surreality of 2020 could the Giants secure their fourth straight season with at least 10 losses on one Sunday, and then punch a ticket to the playoffs the next Sunday.
Follow Jason Keidel on Twitter: @JasonKeidel
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