NFL power rankings, Week 16: The Giants get back to losing
The New Orleans Saints humiliated the New York Giants 24-6 on Sunday, ending their brief break from blowout losses.
One bright spot, if there is one, is that the Giants’ standing in the majority of the weekly power rankings appears to be unaffected by the setback. With an average ranking of 26, New York fell one notch from just a few weeks ago. It’s still not ideal, but it’s not as bad as it was before.
The Giants are ranked No. 23 by FOX Sports’ David Helman, who is the anomaly. Apart from that, the majority of writers are bemoaning the Giants’ incapacity to reliably get the ball to players who are their playmakers, such as Wan’Dale Robinson and Darren Waller.
Assuming they miss the playoffs, the Giants have just three games remaining this season. Two of those are against the Philadelphia Eagles, so it’s possible there could be even more criticism coming in the power rankings if New York embarrasses themselves in those games. Though with the Eagles on a three-game losing streak, who knows?
Aggregate ranking: 26
Last week: 25
ESPN (25)
We’re No. 1 … at punts.
It was hard to find something, but nobody has punted more than the Giants. They even have a partner — the Jets also have 81 punts through 14 games — to make it a New York puntfest. It’s only appropriate to stress this category for the Giants because punter Jamie Gillan and the punt coverage unit have been among the few positives (averaging 43.1 net yards per punt) throughout this disappointing season. — Jordan Raanan
The three-game winning streak ended with an ugly showing against the Saints. They are basically done.
USA Today (28)
They have the most touchdowns, yards and first downs … in New York, er, New Jersey. But it could be tough to maintain that pace with a Christmas spent in Philadelphia.
NFL.com (28)
It’s difficult to hold Tommy DeVito too much for Sunday’s defeat because his wide receivers didn’t contribute much and the offensive line went back to some old bad habits while the game was still close.
DeVito was likely accountable for a couple of the seven sacks, but he persevered throughout the fight despite taking several hard hits, one of which resulted in a concussion test.
Nothing that happened on Sunday should undermine his status as the clear frontrunner to be QB2 behind Daniel Jones next season.
It was good to see Darren Waller back and making an impact, but contributions from Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt have varied wildly week to week. It’d be nice if the Giants could showcase those two young wideouts down the stretch.
FOX Sports (23)
It feels unfair to expect much more from Tommy DeVito in these circumstances, but the breading came off the cutlet a little bit in New Orleans. If he can recapture the magic against the big, bad Eagles, Giants fans have to consider it the high point of their season.
Sporting News (26)
Enough with the Tommy DeVito overhype: This offense isn’t very good when Saquon Barkley isn’t rolling and Darren Waller remains limited. The defense has some pop up front at times vs. run and pass, but the back end needs major fixing for Brian Daboll and Wink Martindale.
Yahoo Sports (27)
The Tommy DeVito story was never guaranteed to last long. And there might be some more exciting moments to come this season. But Sunday’s loss, when the Giants never scored a touchdown against the Saints, reminds the Giants that the offseason might start back at square one.
New York Post (27)
Put Tommy DeVito Mania on hold. The Giants lost against the Saints 24-6, looking more like an undrafted quarterback as DeVito failed to score a touchdown to stop the team’s winning streak of three games. It went beyond a simple offensive blunder. The defense did not force a turnover after producing 11 takeaways in three games. Both Saquon Barkley and Darren Waller were silent.
Pro Football Talk (26)
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