Hello my friends...
I am now 2-2 ATS in preseason action as Chicago let me down against the Bolts by the final score of 25-10, the Bears were within reach at halftime as the score was only 14-10 at the break, however, Chi-town went scoreless during the second half of play while San Diego tacked on three FG's and a safety off a blocked punt to add on 11 second half points.
Are you ready for some football? Preseason or not, its MONDAY NIGHT!!
This Monday Nighter brings together two fabled teams that BOTH have "New York" as part of their name yet BOTH play their home games in the same stadium in the state of New Jersey, go figure. Expect alot of hoopla prior to the opening kickoff as this is the maiden football voyage for the "New Meadowlands Stadium" which now seats 82,566 and at a cost of 1.6 billion dollars is one of the most expensive stadiums ever built.
As a side note, the NFL has a Super Bowl policy that states that in order to host the big game the hosting city has to have a 50 degree climate and/or have a climate controlled facility to play the game in, the "New Meadowlands Stadium" has neither yet NFL Commish Roger "totally unbiased" Goodell waived the rule which in the end is allowing New Jersey to host Super Bowl XLVIII in February of 2014.
Inquiring minds wanna know, did the Giants and Jets flip a coin to see which team would have the distinction of being listed as the "home team" in their first ever get together in this new facility or did the Jets get the honor because they were forced to play second fiddle to the Giants all those years with regard to the Jets playing their home games at "Giants Stadium"?
At any rate in the big picture it really doesn't matter who is listed as the home team and who is listed as the visitor in this contest, to me it only makes sense that BOTH teams will want to win this first ever meeting in their new digs (preseason or not), at least for the first half of play that is.
Giant head man Tom Coughlin is a very experienced skipper that knows what he wants to do and how he wants to do it with regard to using preseason as an evaluation period and won't allow himself to get caught up in the moment, new stadium or not.
Jet skipper Rex Ryan on the other hand is a chip off the ole block, meaning that he is just like his daddy when it comes to liking the spotlight, with that being said I see Ryan doing whatever it takes to win this contest, preseason or not. Ryan has three motivations, first of all he wants to please the fans and the New York/New Jersey press, secondly he wants to out do his former team the Baltimore Ravens who won their first outing, and thirdly he wants to stroke his own ego.
The fact of the matter is that the Jets overall are a better football team right now than the Giants and especially so with the additions of RB LaDainian Tomlinson and WR Santonio Holmes on offense. Ryan also brought in veteran QB Mark Brunell to help educate young Mark Sanchez which I think was a good move. Defensively CB Darrelle Revis is still a holdout but the addition of former Charger CB Antonio Cromartie will make one hell of a formidable defensive secondary.
Pinnacle opened the line on this affair with the Jets installed as -1 (-105) favorites two weeks ago, this past Saturday the line was up to Jets -1.5 (-117), and currently as of Monday morning the line is up to Jets -2.5 (-110). I can see the possibility of this line moving up to Jets -3.5 the closer we get to game time and once the public realizes their is a Monday night game...duh.
However, the books really don't want to see this line move up and over the "key number" of 3 as that would trigger a TON of sharp money on the Giants, mainly due to the fact that these two teams seem to meet each and every year during the preseason and it is usually a close game with regard to the past two preseason meetings being decided by finals of 27-25 and 10-7 (both won by the Jets) and overall 3 of the past 5 preseason meetings have been decided by 3 or less points. Give me the Jets -2.5 while its still available and make it a 2**Play Selection.
Take care and be well my friends
Jim