Eagles defense gets another crack at Giants
His performance wasn't exactly pretty, but Eli Manning did enough to help the Giants to a big win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, 31-24. Next up for New York will be the Eagles who cracked Eli & Co. for a 40-17 win on Nov 1 in Philadelphia. The Giants are still banged up in the receiving corps and that will force New York to the ground or have Manning loading up on routes to his favorite target, Steve Smith.
Sometimes it really is that easy to win a buck.
Of course, anything could have happened last Sunday between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. But what we expected to happen was a high-scoring affair between two subpar defenses, and that’s exactly what we got.
Tony Romo and Eli Manning combined for five touchdown passes in a 31-24 Giants victory, going well 'over' the gameday total of 45 ½ points and keeping the Giants (+1) in the playoff hunt at 7-5 SU and 5-6-1 ATS.
That’s the good news for Big Blue fans. Here’s the bad news: They have to face a strong defense on Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) when they host the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles (8-4 SU, 7-5 ATS) were ranked No. 3 in the league in defensive efficiency and No. 4 against the pass going into Week 12, when they went into the Georgia Dome and squashed the Atlanta Falcons (+4) 34-7. And it was only a month before that when the Eagles trounced the Giants (-1 road dogs) 40-17 as part of New York’s four-game losing streak. Let’s look again at Manning’s numbers from that contest:
Week 8 (at Philadelphia): 20-of-39, 222 yards, one TD, two INTs, 55.7 QB rating
As we pointed out last week, Manning doesn’t have an all-star cast of receivers at his behest, and in Week 8, he didn’t have Mario Manningham (46 catches) because of a bad shoulder. It appears Manningham will miss the Sunday nighter as well after making just one catch in an unusually silent night against the Cowboys. The emerging Hakeem Nicks is doing some damage as Manning’s No. 3 receiver with 34 catches on the season and two against Dallas, one of those for a touchdown.
But the passing game is mostly about Steve Smith. His six catches for 110 yards versus the ‘Boys gave Smith 78 on the season, good for fourth overall in the NFL. Manning targeted Smith 13 times on Sunday and everyone else a combined 12 times.
The Eagles should have something to say about that. Heading into Week 12, they were second in the league in efficiency defending against No. 1 wideouts – Dallas was ninth. They couldn’t stop Roddy White last week (nine catches for 104 yards and a TD), but they were able to contain him; QB Chris Redman targeted White no fewer than 20 times. Meanwhile, Atlanta ran the ball only 22 times for 61 yards.
New York is better equipped than Atlanta to bring this game down to ground level, where the Eagles were ranked just No. 16 against the run. But even this is problematic. Brandon Jacobs (3.9 yards per carry) is well below his 5.0 yards per carry over the past two seasons, and Ahmad Bradshaw (4.9 yards per carry) has foot and ankle problems that sent him to the X-ray room after the Dallas game.
Both players need to get cracking this week in what promises to be a cold night at the Swamp. Temperatures should be around freezing with a 20 percent chance of snow.
The very early betting odds for this matchup have New York as a one-point favorite with a total once again of 45 ½. This is a difficult spot for the Giants. Not only do they have to muster up some offense, they have to keep Philadelphia off the board, which is no mean feat.
Although the Eagles were ranked No. 12 in offense going into Week 12, that includes the two games QB Donovan McNabb missed in September. He’s healthy now, with 10 TD passes and five picks over his last six games – including three majors against New York.
McNabb has been getting more help lately from QB Michael Vick, who had both a rushing and a passing TD last week against his old team. And this was without top receiver DeSean Jackson (concussion), who according to the Philadelphia Inquirer is expected to get medical clearance to face the Giants. Jackson caught one of McNabb’s three TD passes in their Week 8 encounter. More of the same would be, well, more of the same.
His performance wasn't exactly pretty, but Eli Manning did enough to help the Giants to a big win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, 31-24. Next up for New York will be the Eagles who cracked Eli & Co. for a 40-17 win on Nov 1 in Philadelphia. The Giants are still banged up in the receiving corps and that will force New York to the ground or have Manning loading up on routes to his favorite target, Steve Smith.
Sometimes it really is that easy to win a buck.
Of course, anything could have happened last Sunday between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. But what we expected to happen was a high-scoring affair between two subpar defenses, and that’s exactly what we got.
Tony Romo and Eli Manning combined for five touchdown passes in a 31-24 Giants victory, going well 'over' the gameday total of 45 ½ points and keeping the Giants (+1) in the playoff hunt at 7-5 SU and 5-6-1 ATS.
That’s the good news for Big Blue fans. Here’s the bad news: They have to face a strong defense on Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC) when they host the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles (8-4 SU, 7-5 ATS) were ranked No. 3 in the league in defensive efficiency and No. 4 against the pass going into Week 12, when they went into the Georgia Dome and squashed the Atlanta Falcons (+4) 34-7. And it was only a month before that when the Eagles trounced the Giants (-1 road dogs) 40-17 as part of New York’s four-game losing streak. Let’s look again at Manning’s numbers from that contest:
Week 8 (at Philadelphia): 20-of-39, 222 yards, one TD, two INTs, 55.7 QB rating
As we pointed out last week, Manning doesn’t have an all-star cast of receivers at his behest, and in Week 8, he didn’t have Mario Manningham (46 catches) because of a bad shoulder. It appears Manningham will miss the Sunday nighter as well after making just one catch in an unusually silent night against the Cowboys. The emerging Hakeem Nicks is doing some damage as Manning’s No. 3 receiver with 34 catches on the season and two against Dallas, one of those for a touchdown.
But the passing game is mostly about Steve Smith. His six catches for 110 yards versus the ‘Boys gave Smith 78 on the season, good for fourth overall in the NFL. Manning targeted Smith 13 times on Sunday and everyone else a combined 12 times.
The Eagles should have something to say about that. Heading into Week 12, they were second in the league in efficiency defending against No. 1 wideouts – Dallas was ninth. They couldn’t stop Roddy White last week (nine catches for 104 yards and a TD), but they were able to contain him; QB Chris Redman targeted White no fewer than 20 times. Meanwhile, Atlanta ran the ball only 22 times for 61 yards.
New York is better equipped than Atlanta to bring this game down to ground level, where the Eagles were ranked just No. 16 against the run. But even this is problematic. Brandon Jacobs (3.9 yards per carry) is well below his 5.0 yards per carry over the past two seasons, and Ahmad Bradshaw (4.9 yards per carry) has foot and ankle problems that sent him to the X-ray room after the Dallas game.
Both players need to get cracking this week in what promises to be a cold night at the Swamp. Temperatures should be around freezing with a 20 percent chance of snow.
The very early betting odds for this matchup have New York as a one-point favorite with a total once again of 45 ½. This is a difficult spot for the Giants. Not only do they have to muster up some offense, they have to keep Philadelphia off the board, which is no mean feat.
Although the Eagles were ranked No. 12 in offense going into Week 12, that includes the two games QB Donovan McNabb missed in September. He’s healthy now, with 10 TD passes and five picks over his last six games – including three majors against New York.
McNabb has been getting more help lately from QB Michael Vick, who had both a rushing and a passing TD last week against his old team. And this was without top receiver DeSean Jackson (concussion), who according to the Philadelphia Inquirer is expected to get medical clearance to face the Giants. Jackson caught one of McNabb’s three TD passes in their Week 8 encounter. More of the same would be, well, more of the same.
