SLIPPING AWAY: Antrel Rolle can’t bring down Falcons receiver Harry Douglas during Sunday’s 34-0 loss. The Giants say they have to tackle better if they want to beat the Ravens this week. (Getty Images)
In order for the Giants to avoid getting shown the door, they need to crash through it no matter who is in their way.
“Our backs are actually against the wall now, and we got to play that way,’’ linebacker Chase Blackburn said Wednesday. “We got to come out fighting, swinging, just like when you’re in a bar fight and your back is against the wall, there’s only one way to get to that door — swing your way out. That’s what you got to do.’’
The Giants didn’t come close to landing any haymakers in last week’s inept 34-0 loss in Atlanta, and as a result have pushed their season to the brink of playoff elimination heading into Sunday’s game in Baltimore against the struggling but still postseason-bound Ravens.
The Giants got blanked by the Falcons seven days after putting 52 points on the Saints, but mostly it’s been uneven at best, unsightly at worst as they’ve dropped from first to third in the NFC East.
“Week after week you don’t know what you are going to get from us,’’ Jason Pierre-Paul said. “We are not consistent until, I guess, somebody is going to get fired or our backs are against the wall or it is either all or nothing. That is where we are at right now. It is either all or nothing or we are going to pack our stuff and get out of here.
“And I am not trying to go home early. I want to make that run and at least get into the playoffs and showing that we can do it. That is what we are striving for and hoping we can get there.’’
The Giants won’t get anywhere if they can’t lay a glove on Ray Rice, a running back capable of sending them home a beaten team if they continue to put on display shoddy run defense. The Giants rank 22nd in the league in stopping the run, and Blackburn figures the Ravens will go to school on that failing and try to jam it down the Giants’ throats with a heavy dose of Rice.
“No doubt, if I was them,’’ Blackburn said. “We’re not tackling well.”
That’s no way to operate when your playoff lives are on the line. The Giants missed 18 tackles against the Falcons, which is almost unfathomable.
“I know it was not good, and I know I was a contributor to that as well,’’ Blackburn said. “Bad tackling, bad targets.
“We got to use our hands better when we wrap tackle and gang tackle. We can’t have the solo tackles, leave guys on an island. We got to get more guys to the ball, especially with a guy we’re gonna face this week like Ray Rice, who’s gonna put his foot in the ground and come north and south.’’
Rice is up to his usual running antics, already over 1,000 yards at 1,031, averaging 4.5 yards per carry, with nine rushing touchdowns and adding his usual flair as a pass-catcher with 55 receptions. His numbers are down a bit from a year ago, when he had an NFL-high 2,068 yards from scrimmage, but the former Rutgers product remains a durable, dependable threat. If given the smallest crack, he will devastate a suspect run defense.
“We cannot have missed tackles,’’ Pierre-Paul said. “That is not football. That is poor tackling, and that is what we did. We have to go out there and wrap tackle. This is the NFL, we should know how to tackle by now.’’
A year ago, the Giants began their march to another Super Bowl triumph, embarking on a six-game winning streak, by beating the Jets on Christmas Eve, with the defensive intensity kicked up several notches.
“I don’t want to hear that,’’ Pierre-Paul said. “To me that’s all bullcrap. Know what I mean? Yeah, we have done it before, but this is a whole other year. Each year is a totally different year. You don’t have the same guys on the team as last year. Who knows who is going to be here next year.
“We have to go out there this Sunday and play our hearts out, and hopefully we get in the next week’s game after that against the Eagles and get into the playoffs.’’