Thursday Night Football, CBS/NFLN
Washington Redskins @ New York Giants
(New York Giants -4, 43 1/2)
09/24/15 @ 8:25 PM ET
Nailed Monday night's football game between the Colts and the Jets so we're already starting off playing with the houses money! NYJ's and the points were a pretty easy pick there knowing that Luck would be pressured all night and we'd probably see some turnovers come out of it as I stated. So lets try and keep this train rolling by breaking down this matchup. In an NFC rivals clash, the Giants will play host to the visiting Redskins at MetLife Stadium for week 3 of Thursday Night Football. The Giants are coming in 0-2 while Washington is coming in at a modest 1-1. Winning here could keep the Giants' hopes alive, but a loss might spell sure doom starting off 0-3. On the flipside, a win for Washington would mean a 2-1 record and send a message to the rest of their division that they mean business.
Lets take a look at the Giants. At first glance, it seems very hard to bet against a 2 time Super Bowl QB in Eli Manning and an outstanding WR in Odell Beckham JR. We can be realistic and say that they should be 2-0. I mean they blew a double-digit 4th quarter lead to my Falcons and mismanaging the clock likely cost them the game to the Cowboys. But hey, on a good note, they are one of the least penalized teams in the league ranking 4th in that category. One advantage New York will have in this game is against the Redskins passing attack. Washington only averages 8.6 yards per pass. That ranks near the bottom of the league in that category coming in at 30th. Plus, the run stop defense of the Skins allows 4.5 yards per touch so the NYG's will have their opportunities to pick up yardage when they pound the ball.
Now lets take a look at Washington's game. They use an up-tempo offense that averages close to 39 minutes of possession a game. That ranks 2nd in the league. And although they may not average a lot of yardage per play through the air as I mentioned earlier, they do own a completion percentage of almost 76%. That ranks 4th in the league in that category. So they are very capable of finding their receiving targets. Opposing teams thus far in this early season only manage rushing about 71 yards per game on average. That also ranks 4th in the entire league. Now we get into the Redskins strength which is running the ball. Alfred Morris and rookie Matt Jones provide a very powerful 1-2 punch as they rank 1st in the league for that category. At their QB position, they kind of remind me of Fitzpatrick with the Jets. He's just an average quarterback but is a good game manager. And that is pretty much what Kirk Cousins is for the Skins. Nothing special, just a good game manager.
The Redskins are struggling to find a deep ball or big play threat if you will. Without Desean Jackson, nobody has really stepped up to fill that void. You have Garcon who is decent but hasn't just given you that WOW feeling or factor. Jordan Reed is their big TE and is a good playmaker but there again, he's not a speedster that can hurt you downfield time and time again. For the Giant's, it's just the opposite. They do have a big play threat in Beckham. If they can find a way to keep getting him the ball and keep him in the game, then they'll be fine. Where they keep killing themselves is with all the dumb penalties, fumbles in the red zone, bad play calling and dropping passes. Plus, their defense doesn't like playing hard but for about 3 quarters. That 4th quarter gives them fits and that shows when they always allow the opposing teams to put together game winning drives. One thing that's a little worrisome is that the Giants seem to have a ton of people listed as "out" or "questionable" for this game on a short week. You may want to keep a close eye on who suits up for them the closer to game time gets here.
I guess what this is going to boil down to is this question.....can the Giants finally "finish" a game? I'm not so sure of that at this point. They haven't showed me that they can. And even with a lead, they can't seem to find a way to hold it. Now they have to deal with a team that can manage the clock and should be able to take care of the ball. The Redskins have a really good offensive line to play behind so they will move the ball on the Giants. There line coach is none other than Bill Callahan. The same Callahan that coached the Cowboys offensive line last year that was ranked #1 in the league. Plus, the Giants rank dead LAST against the pass this year so Cousins and his average passing ability should be good there too. Eli Manning only has an 89% passer rating his self and has only managed a total of 2 TD passes this season. He can't even find a way to get Rueben Randle involved the way he should be with Victor Cruz not even being on the field. This game will probably come down to who is better in the trenches and my faith right now, as bad as it sounds when you say it out loud, is with Washington and their dysfunctional team. They have that very strong running game and that's always a good blueprint to follow. Plus that will likely mean that they find their selves in very manageable 3rd down situations. So, it won't be the popular play, but I'll be laying my money on the Skins. BOL everyone!
Washington Redskins +4
Just a couple more tidbits of information about this matchup. I'm liking the Redskins offensive line more and more as I keep breaking down different positions and units. They only surrendered 7 pressures on Cousins last game and they did a superb job at knocking the defense back enough on running plays that Matt Jones averaged right at 4.7 yards before any contact was even made on him. The league average as a whole is only 2.4 yards before contact. And on the defensive side, opponents have only ran 101 total plays against them and scored only 27 points. Opposing offenses have only had the ball on average of 22 minutes per game and gained a total of only 470 total yards.
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