Giants' first unit plays it's 2009 in loss to Ravens

BALTIMORE - Check the calendar. Is it still 2009?

The Giants certainly looked and played like it was last night when they had their dry run for the regular season against the Ravens. After an offseason in which they brought in a fiery new defensive coordinator, upgraded their defensive secondary and surgically repaired their two main running backs, there was supposed to be a big difference in this team.

So why did the first half feel so much like those dreadful final hours at Giants Stadium last December and that humiliating finale in Minnesota?

This wasn't a dress rehearsal. It was more of a revival. And though the 24-10 loss wasn't nearly as lopsided as those games to close out 2009 and there were 14 players sidelined by injury - four of them projected starters - just the whiff of that kind of play is a show no one associated with the Giants would want to see a second time.

"I'm disappointed about the play," Tom Coughlin said at halftime when the Giants trailed 17-3. "We need to make some plays . . . It's about fire, it's about enjoying yourself, it's about playing your butt off. We can play with better energy, we can make things happen above the X's and O's."

The Giants' defense started with a three-and-out that included a sack by Justin Tuck, but on the next series, the Ravens and their no-huddle passing attack stormed down the field for a field goal to make it 3-0. The Giants appeared poised to answer. Ahmad Bradshaw ripped off a 12-yard run in which he made four Ravens players lunge and whiff and Brandon Jacobs turned the corner for a 29-yard run. After Eli Manning hit Hakeem Nicks for a 9-yard pass, though, the Giants faced second-and-1 from the 15.

Three times they handed the ball to Bradshaw and three times he was unable to gain those 3 feet for a first. The Giants handed it over on downs and barely had enough time to hang their heads before the Ravens drove 85 yards for a 10-0 lead on Joe Flacco's 9-yard slant pass to Anquan Boldin with Courtney Brown in coverage. The Ravens went up 17-0 on their next drive when Flacco hit Todd Heap on a 13-yard slant, this time with Antrel Rolle on Heap's back. On the two brisk drives, Flacco was 12-for-14 for 111 yards.

While the defense was being bled, the best aspect of Eli Manning's game may have been that he wasn't bleeding. In his first game action since having his scalp sliced against the Jets nearly two weeks ago, Manning looked shaky, missing open receivers such as Steve Smith on a deep post and not showing much touch on short passes to running backs.

In one half of play, Manning was 9-for-18 for 63 yards and was sacked once. He also threw an interception that was tipped by Ravens linebacker Dannell Ellerbe before Smith juggled the ball right into the hands of safety Haruki Nakamura.

Manning's stats for this preseason: 13-for-26, 140 yards. More importantly, with it unlikely he'll see time Thursday against the Patriots in the preseason closer, the Manning-led offense has been to the end zone only once this preseason and that was on a 1-yard drive that took three plays against the Jets.

The Giants' defense showed a pulse late in the second quarter when Corey Webster picked off a pass that bounced off Boldin and returned it 28 yards to the Ravens' 32. But the Giants had only 16 seconds left when they got the ball and had to settle for a 42-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes to make it 17-3 at halftime.

Flacco, who played into the third quarter, finished completing 21 of 34 passes for 229 yards.

"They hit us with the no-huddle and kind of hurried the game up," said Tuck, who had two sacks and was one of the few Giants defenders who showed up. "I'm still proud of the way we fought. They made some plays and we made some plays, but there is still a lot of work for us to get this defense where we want it to be."