Giants-Patriots Line at New England -9
The Giants-Patriots line was coming in at New England -9 heading into Sunday morning.
Sportsbook.com Line & Total: New England -9 & 51
Opening Line & Total: Patriots -9 & 51.5
The Giants and Patriots meet Sunday for the first time since New York’s Super Bowl XLII upset over 18-0 New England following the 2007 season.
Four years ago, the Giants front four smothered Tom Brady and the Patriots en route to a championship. New York still has one of the best pass rushes in the NFL (league-high 26 sacks), especially now that Jason Pierre-Paul (8.5 sacks) has emerged as an All- Pro-caliber performer. Brady should be better prepared this time around though, and a thin Giants secondary will have difficulty matching up with WR Wes Welker and TEs Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. New England has won 20 straight home games in the regular season, going 12-7-1 ATS (63%) in those contests.
Offensively, the Giants have limited turnovers this year and QB Eli Manning should be able capitalize against a weak Patriots pass defense. Manning is third in the NFL in QB rating (102.1) and he averaged 346 passing YPG in October. His team has new-found depth at receiver with Victor Cruz emerging with 480 receiving yards and four scores in his past five games. They’ll need that depth considering top WR Hakeem Nicks is listed as questionable with a hamstring injury. Despite the high level that Manning and the passing offense have been performing at, the Giants rushing attack has been dreadful. They rank third-to-last in the NFL with 85.6 rushing YPG, having yet to reach 125 yards in any game this year. Ahmad Bradshaw has 440 rushing yards and 5 TD, but Brandon Jacobs has been slowed by a knee injury and has contributed very little this year at 3.0 yards per carry.
Despite the QB-pressuring prowess New York’s D-Line brings to the table, the run-stop unit ranks 28th in the NFL with 130 rushing YPG allowed. The passing defense ranks 13th (225 YPG), but the Giants have faced just one opponent all year ranked among the league’s top-12 passing offenses (Philadelphia, 9th). The Patriots, who are throwing for 325 YPG, the second-highest mark in football, will certainly test the G-Men.
New England’s offense wasn’t its usual, unstoppable self in last week’s loss at Pittsburgh. The offensive line failed to prevent the Steelers from pressuring Brady, who failed to reach 200 passing yards for the first time this season. Brady was sacked five times in the Super Bowl loss to New York, completing 29-of-48 passes for 266 yards, 1 TD and 0 INT. With the Giants poor rushing defense, New England needs to run the football more, especially from top RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis who tried to play through his toe injury last week, but had just five carries for nine yards. Green-Ellis has 400 yards and 5 TD for the season. If Green-Ellis is still limited, 35-year-old Kevin Faulk, who rushed for 32 yards on six carries in his season debut last week, could be the featured back again. RBs Danny Woodhead and Stevan Ridley did not carry the football last week, partly because New England only had the ball for 20:38.
The biggest problem for New England continues to be its league-worst pass defense allowing 323 YPG this season. After cutting CB Leigh Bodden, one the better defensive backs, the Patriots will have even more problems stopping the red-hot Manning. Star LB Jerod Mayo returned to action last week after missing two games with a knee injury, but he didn’t play his usual heavy workload. He hopes to start this week. New England has won four straight regular-season meetings with New York, but three of those victories came by three points or less.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
