EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Life gets no easier for the Giants as they head into the final four games of their 2024 season.

Their last four opponents are Baltimore and Indianapolis at home, and Atlanta and Philadelphia on the road. Those four teams are a combined 31-21, a .596 winning percentage that ties them with San Francisco, Seattle and Detroit for the league's fifth-most difficult remaining schedule.

The Eagles lead the NFC East with an 11-2 record, though it's possible they will rest their starters if they are locked into a playoff seed when the teams meet in the season finale the first weekend in January. The Ravens, who visit MetLife Stadium Sunday, are 8-5, second in the AFC North and fifth in the conference seedings and will be well-rested after their bye this weekend. The Falcons and Colts are both 6-7 and in contention for their division titles or wild card berths.

It's a challenging stretch run for any team. But that's particularly true for the Giants, who are 2-11, have lost eight straight games, are 0-7 at home, have several key players sidelined by injuries, and need a rebound after their latest disappointing loss, a 14-11 defeat to the New Orleans Saints. The Giants thought they were about to send the game into overtime, but Bryan Bresee blocked Graham Gano's 35-yard field goal attempt with eight seconds remaining.

How do the Giants put that behind them and prepare to face a talent-laden Ravens team that is also looking for a bounce back after losing to the Eagles in their most recent game?

"Just being a resilient group," quarterback Drew Lock said in his postgame news conference. "Shoot, when you're 2-11, you've got to be resilient. You're going out there with pride, with passion for the game. Love the game and you're going to come out there and give everything you've got and just try to taste that win again. Get one of those, Mondays feel good, the whole week of practice feels good. Got to keep grinding, keep pushing, keep battling. That locker room is tight – it's one of the closest locker rooms I've ever been in. Zero finger pointing. It's nice to be in that and I think guys have handled this the best they could and we're going to continue to handle it and try to get a win here in these last couple of games."

"Stay motivated, stay focused on our goal and the task at hand each week," linebacker Micah McFadden said. "Obviously, we got a big one coming up here. But this is our job, and we got to go out and perform on Sunday and play for each other. I think that's kind of the ultimate message at this point in the year. Play for the guy next to you and do your job as best you can so they can play faster."

No Giants player who suited up yesterday has played more games in a Giants uniform than wide receiver Darius Slayton, who appeared in his 90^th game, including two in the postseason. Slayton has played on just one winning team, the 2022 squad that went 9-7-1. He has participated in his share of disappointing outcomes, but the loss to New Orleans particularly stung, even when looking at the big picture.

"I'll speak from my perspective of being here for six years and a lot has transpired in that time frame," Slayton said. "I made a statement after that game, but I would say that was probably somewhat unique to me and my experience. But obviously, Sunday's loss was particularly rough seeing how we fought, and I feel like we got ourselves in a position to have a chance to win the game there and we obviously still came up short. It's a rough way to lose no matter what your record is."

Daboll has coached in the NFL for 24 seasons, a time frame that makes it very likely he will endure a season as unpleasant as this. He was the offensive coordinator in Kansas City in 2012, when the Chiefs lost eight straight and 12 of their last 13 games. In his one season with the Dolphins in 2011, the Dolphins lost their first seven games.

Daboll was asked today if he's ever been part of something of this "magnitude."

"Unfortunately, I have been," he said. "I've been part of some losing streaks like this and some winning streaks. I think you are part of a lot of different things when you do it for as long as I have. You get a little bit of roll; you start playing good. Turnovers are a big, usually a big factor in that. Situational football is usually a big factor in that. Whether that be red zone, third down, and that helps scoring points, or preventing points.

"I've been part of a few of them where we started out and had a fair amount of losses, finished strong. Again, every season's different, every game's different. It was ebbs and flows to yesterday's game. We had some opportunities there, I'd say, in all three phases. We had 13 points basically that we had, and then we didn't have them (because penalties nullified them), or we got blocked. And then we had some opportunities, we had far too many third downs offensively, didn't convert on those. And we had the one thing in the red zone there, defensively, where they did a good job of shifting out, we had an uncovered guy. So, there's plays every game, every season. Got to figure out a way to make those."

*Lock was understandably uncomfortable after he was sacked twice, hit 14 times on dropbacks, and had five rushing attempts. He was X-rayed yesterday and underwent an MRI today.

"He's sore," coach Brian Daboll said. "We've got a couple things right now, but don't have the results just yet. I know he's sore."

Daboll said Lock will start Sunday against Baltimore, "unless he can't based on injury."

*Outside of the quarterback position, the Giants' injury list continues to grow. Two offensive linemen who had previously played every snap this season went down Sunday, left guard Jon Runyan and center John Michael Schmitz. The unit was already missing tackles Jermaine Eluemunor and Chris Hubbard, who were inactive with quad and knee injuries, respectively.

"Runyan is pretty sore today," Daboll said. "A lot of these guys are still getting an MRIed or getting looked at. But I'd say Runyan (is) week to week, maybe more than week to week. (Safety Tyler) Nubin has an ankle, we'll see where he's at. John Michael's MRI looks okay, but he's sore."