Giants Open as 6.5-Point Underdogs vs Los Angeles
It’s the holiday season, but the New York Giants fell just short of giving themselves and the fanbase their greatest Christmas gift in over a decade.
Amid a halftime change at quarterback and a couple of timely miscues by the Philadelphia Eagles, their rival opponent, the Giants were knocking on the door of a Christmas Day upset against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night.
However, a few untimely miscues and a questionable defensive non-pass interference call would end up stifling the team’s rally in the late minutes of the fourth quarter. The Giants would fall 33-25 behind the heroics of Tyrod Taylor to extend their losing streak in the City of Brotherly Love and put an ultimatum nail in their postseason coffin.
As the team heads into its final two regular-season contests, they will have to look forward to a second meeting with the Eagles in two weeks for the season finale at MetLife Stadium. However, that wrap-up game won’t arrive before New York hosts its last interconference foe, the Los Angeles Rams.
For the third time in four weeks, the Giants face off with a team in the Rams that is in the thick of the ongoing race for the final wild card spots in the NFC playoff picture. Similarly to the Green Bay Packers a few games ago, the visiting Rams enter this matchup on a hot streak that’s seen their production jump and result in four wins in the last five affairs.
With their dominant win over the Saints last Thursday, Los Angeles strengthened their claim for a bid in the postseason and has placed themselves into the discussion as a team to be feared in any potential first-round matchup. The books have considered all that for this meeting with the Giants, and the trend of underdog status will remain on New York’s home turf.
According to FanDuel, the Giants will open Week 17 as a 6.5-point underdog to the Rams in East Rutherford, a location they haven’t been a favorite in the 2023 season. Despite that stat, the team has covered the spread in their previous two homestands, including an impressive performance by DeVito and company in Week 14 on the primetime stage against the Packers.
Any potential to cover the latest margin will involve a much larger ask regarding overall production from the Giants, whose offense has struggled to be potent weekly. On the other hand, the Rams have become one of the most fruitful teams in the NFL over the past month, scoring 28 or more points in each of their last five contests.
Veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford leads their offensive unit and is in his 15th NFL season. In his third campaign with the Rams, the 35-year-old has already taken the team to a Super Bowl title in 2021 and two 3,500+ yard passing stat lines with 74 combined touchdowns.
Stafford is on pace to potentially meet his 10th 4,000-yard season with at least 20 touchdown passes attached to it this fall. In 14 games as the starter, he has 302 completions for 3,648 yards, 23 touchdowns, and nine interceptions and has the Rams on the cusp of another postseason berth on his watch.
Stafford and the Rams offense has benefited greatly from the emergence of wide receivers Puka Nucua and Tutu Atwell. With both being versatile pass catchers in addition to Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles has ranked in the top 10 in passing yards, touchdowns, and average yards per play over the past few weeks and boosted their overall production into the same range.
In the ground game, the Rams have become just as powerful with a backfield owned by Kyren Williams, who has them ranked ninth or 10th in all major rushing categories. The 23-year-old has 208 carries for 1,057 yards and nine touchdowns and adds some complementary production as a pass catcher, meaning he will get involved on Sundays.
Whereas the Giants have made some improvements to their red zone offense in the second half of the season, the Rams have been one of the best teams at creating points down at the goal line. Los Angeles stands ninth in team red-zone scoring percentage and averaged the eighth-most points per drive in the league due to their prominence inside the 20-yard line.
The Rams could pose another tough task for the Giants regarding their rushing defense, holding opposing running backs to the 13th lowest yards per game and 10th fewest touchdowns in the NFL. If New York wants to find a weakness, however, the defensive coverage allows the quarterback to sling it at a rate of 35.8 times per game and churn 231.2 yards in the same span.
Regardless of who controls the huddle on Sunday, the Giants should look to let it loose in the air and trust their wide receivers to make some plays as much as the Rams have benefited from their own. The Rams can get points on the board in the flash like many premier teams have against Big Blue this year, and that makes it tough for the Giants to win games when they are down more than one score with a less consistent unit.
Big-time plays nearly stole the game at Philadelphia, and with trust in the same players, the Giants could hit a few more against the Rams and snatch one more home win for their fans before they bid the season down.
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