Nelly's Thursday NFC East Showcase Winner
- Handicapper
- Nelly's Sports
- League
- NFL
- Competition
- New York Giants vs Washington Football Team
- Release Date
- 09/16/2021 09:34 AM
- Event Date
- 09/16/2021 08:20 PM
- Bet Type
- Point Spread
- Pick
-
New York Giants +3.5 (-115)
(DraftKings)
- Outcome
- Win
- Analysis
- Washington won the NFC East last season despite going 0-2 vs. the Giants last season and New York has won the past five meetings in this series. The season debut for New York went poorly losing 27-13 and it was 27-7 until the final seconds. Daniel Jones was adequate in the passing game, but he was also the team’s leading rusher as Saquon Barkley had a minimal impact. More concerning was allowing 6.4 yards per play on defense with Denver going 10-18 on 3rd and 4th downs. A Washington defense that was expected to be an elite group also had a marginal opening week performance as well. Washington allowed the Chargers to convert an eye-popping 14 3rd downs as they were unable to get Justin Herbert off the field. Washington had the ball for less than 24 minutes and the Chargers ran 78 plays with efficient numbers in the passing game. It could have been much worse for Washington than the 20-16 final as the Chargers got touchdowns on only two of six red zone chances. Washington’s famed pass rush also had a minimal impact with just two sacks and five hits on the quarterback. Daniel Jones had a competent game in the opening week ranking around the league average with few big plays for the offense but also few mistakes. The Washington run defense had mixed results last season and really wasn’t tested last week as the Chargers threw 47 times. The case for Barkley to have a greater impact this week is excellent, and the Giants seem likely to boost their scoring as last week they had three consecutive second half drives within the Denver 22-yard-line and got zero points. The Ryan Fitzpatrick acquisition was supposed to provide stability to the Washington offense, but he was injured after making just six throws last week. Taylor Heinicke kept Washington in the game and Antonio Gibson ran the ball well but lost a game-changing fumble in the 4th quarter. A short week for Heinicke to take over the offense is not a promising set-up as while he has played well in taking over the offense in the past two Washington games, he remains a backup that is small in stature, and is a significant downgrade from Fitzpatrick. New York was an above average defense last season, allowing just 5.3 yards per play, ninth best in the NFL. Washington has not covered as a favorite or more than three points in a game since 2017 going 0-3 ATS in the previous three instances to illustrate how rare this price is. The Giants have been a formidable road team going 18-6 ATS since 2018 and Joe Judge’s team won three road games S/U last year while going 6-2 ATS away from home including winning 23-20 in this venue last season as a lesser underdog than this week.
Thank you for playing with Nelly’s and Best of Luck.
