Giants Open as Double-Digit Underdogs vs Washington
The New York Giants might have to get used to seeing double-digit margins the rest of their season, as it appears that trend is following them straight into Washington.
Revisiting their dominant NFC East rival in the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday, it felt hard to fathom the Giants failing to cover an astounding 17.5-point line and at least competitively avenge their 40-0 loss to the opposition in the season opener. Yet, the former is exactly what New York did in humiliating fashion, falling 49-17 in a complete rout behind the NFL starting debut of quarterback Tommy DeVito.
With the season spiraling even further out of control, the focus turns to another matchup with a divisional opponent and, surprisingly, one New York has already beaten for one of their two wins this year. That doesn’t mean the oddsmakers are keeping the second meeting close, electing instead to view the Giants as a bigger underdog than before.
Per FanDuel, the Giants travel to Washington to visit the Commanders as a 9.5-point underdog on Sunday. The opening line is a significant decrease from the record-setting spread seen in Week 10 but represents an eight-point increase from the margin in their first meeting on October 22.
In the first meeting, the Giants rode a potent defensive performance and good offensive management by quarterback Tyrod Taylor to defeat the Commanders 14-7. Facing second-year quarterback Sam Howell for the first time, the Giants defense made Howell’s afternoon an arduous one by sacking him six times, intercepting him once, and keeping the Commanders to 1-of-15 on third down conversions to prevent nearly any visits to the red zone.
As the teams arrive at FedEx Field for Round 2 of the season series, a much improved Commanders squad will be waiting on the other side. Standing at 4-6 after going 1-2 in the last three weeks, Washington is coming off three performances of at least 356 yards of offense and 76 total points in that span of games.
With those performances, the Commanders are ranked 17th and 16th in total points and yards, respectively. After completing just 52.4 percent of his passes in Week 7, Howell has put together a trio of impressive outings featuring over 1,000 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and two interceptions. In Seattle last week, he let it rip for 29 completions for 312 yards and three scores to almost carry the team to a road victory and place them in the top 10 for several categories.
The defense is where the Commanders' issues lie after Chase Young's and Montez Sweat's departures via trades at the league deadline. Missing their stud edge rusher and inside linebacker, Washington’s unit has fallen to 31st in points and 29th in yards allowed, with at least 29 points and 374 yards given up in two of their last three contests.
The passing environment could be much friendlier than DeVito and company saw in Dallas, as the Commanders allow some of the most passing attempts, yards, touchdowns (31st), and average yards per throw in the entire NFL. The space up the middle could also be lucrative against a Jack Del Rio group ranked 21st in rushing yards allowed and 28th in average yards per rush.
Even with the defensive deficiencies considered, they welcome a Giants team that continues to boast the worst scoring offense, averaging 11.8 points through its first ten competitions. The visiting team has yet to score another first-half touchdown since defeating the Commanders a month ago, has yet to record a first-quarter offensive touchdown, and has only notched two scores in the second half against Dallas when the game was already out of hand.
With DeVito again set to be under center, the Giants need to find a semblance of continuity moving the football throughout an entire game. Thus far, with DeVito running the offense, the Giants have managed just 449 yards of offense, including 261 yards passing and under 250 on the ground.
The only blessing the Giants have going into this matchup is their historic stronghold over the Washington franchise in their biannual series. They lead the overall series 107–71-5 dating back to the 1932 season and have taken seven of the last ten meetings.
Perhaps the Giants' good fortunes against the Commanders result in a much-needed upset this weekend. The oddsmakers in Vegas aren’t so sure of that possibility, and thus, New York will have another underdog status to overcome on Sunday.
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