OK, Giants fans. This is test week. Your team has won once in its last five games, and that was against the Houston Texans. Your formerly daring coach, Brian Daboll, turned into John Birch last weekend, because he was so conservative in overtime.
Now your team is going up against a Philadelphia Eagles team that leads the NFL with an 11-1 record, and just accumulated 380 passing yards against a very good Tennessee Titans team. That total is coming one week after rushing for more than 350 yards against the Green Bay Packers, with 157 of those yards coming from Jalen Hurts.
Yes, the Eagles looked vulnerable three weeks ago with a one-point victory over the Indianapolis Colts, which came on the heels of a 32-21 loss to the Washington Commanders. But the Eagles have shown the type of bounce back ability that has eluded the Giants, hence the spread floating between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 as the bets come in midweek.
This will be a character test, and another tie is not what the Giants need for their collective confidence. If they are satisfied with exceeding expectations, their season is already over and they can deem it a success.
But if they strive for being a championship caliber team, it is incumbent that they get a victory against the cofavorite for MVP, Hurts, with a game plan that will account for the likelihood than rain and wind are going to have a big impact on this matchup at the Meadowlands. If they win, perhaps a certain unattractive comedian who somehow scores supermodels will take everyone out clubbing with new squeeze Emily Ratajkowski and her girlfriends.
https://twitter.com/Giants/status/1600658669347258368
Why Is The Line So Low, Given The Eagles record?Good question, and the best answer is that the sportsbooks want equal action to come in on both sides of the line. Since gambling is legal in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, the handle percentages will not be skewed by having one of the teams come from a state where gambling is not yet legal.
As of Thursday morning, DraftKings Sports book was seeing a 58%-42% edge for the Giants in spread bets (their line was at 6 1/2), but with a 63-37 percentage advantage for the Eagles in terms of tickets. The moneyline action was heavily in Philly s favor at 85% of handle despite the -275 line, which is a sign that bettors believe an Eagles win is a certainty, even if a cover is not.
Philadelphia is 7-5-0 against the spread (ATS), while the Giants are tied with Cincinnati for the league lead at 9-3-0 ATS, covering each of the last two weeks in their duds against the Commanders and Cowboys. So while they may be a good spread bet, this is the time of the season when the pretenders are separated from the contenders, and the Giants fall squarely into the former category until they prove otherwise. When your last quality win came Oct. 16 against Baltimore, you have not exactly been channeling Pete Davidson lately.
And now, you must face a team that has the following going for it:
The Eagles have back-to-back games of 450 or more total yards and five or more touchdowns for the first time since 1981.The Eagles lead the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 23, just two short of their franchise record for an entire season. The Eagles lead the NFL with 23 takeaways, including a league-best 15 interceptions.The Eagles are second in the league with 42 sacks, with three or more sacks in six consecutive games.The pass defense leads the league, allowing just 178.5 yards per game.The average of 28.2 points a game is second in the league to the Chiefs (29.2).They convert 45.8% on third down, third-best in the league. Their red-zone offense scoring of 73.8% is second-best in the league.Hurts has won 14 of his past 15 starts and is the only quarterback in NFL history with 7,000-plus passing yards (7,003) and 1,500-plus rushing yards (1,665) through 31 career starts.Hurts has accounted for 29 touchdowns — passing for 20 and running for nine. The Giants have 26 touchdowns as a team.