Giants Open as 6.5-Point Underdogs vs. Green Bay

The Packers are red hot following their win over the Chiefs on Sunday night.

The New York Giants are back from their bye week, and greeting them is an opponent riding a hot streak into East Rutherford at just the right time.

Returning to the gridiron with a two-game win streak under their belts, the Giants are set to embark on the final five games of their regular season schedule. They find themselves in a surprising predicament on the other side, sitting just two games back of the final wild-card spot in the NFC playoff picture and holding contests with three teams currently ahead of them.

One of those teams is the Green Bay Packers, which has also risen from the ashes to stake their claim for a potential postseason berth. The Pack will travel to MetLife to face the Giants with a three-game win streak, including a 27-19 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night and an offense that has found a timely spark that could carry them into January football.

A few weeks ago, this Monday night meeting with New York was expected to be a less-than-desirable matchup with potentially positive implications for the host team. However, the Packers' recent success has turned the tide on the oddsmakers opening projections and placed the Giants into another underdog situation.

According to FanDuel’s opening lines, the Giants will welcome the Packers as 6.5-point underdogs at MetLife Stadium. The spread is their second-largest margin in the last three games and marks the 12th consecutive contest in which the Giants have been handed the lesser role.

When you look at where the Packers have elevated themselves offensively over the last three weeks, it becomes less of a surprise why the visitors were handed a wider margin in their favor. After not posting more than 20 points since their first two games of the year, Green Bay has notched 23 or more points in their last three contests to take down some quality opponents and juice their unit’s rankings.

Following their win over the Chiefs in Week 13, the Packers now rank 17th in the NFL in total points and yards and are one of the best at protecting the football at 6th overall. Their passing game has grown behind the improved play of quarterback Jordan Love, who’s helped them rise to 19th in attempts, 17th in yards, sixth in touchdowns, and 14th in average yards per throw.

The Packers’ rushing side has seen its fallbacks amid injuries to the position, with starter Aaron Jones missing time. However, they still boast a bull in AJ Dillon, who can pound the rock up the middle and did so successfully against a stout Chiefs defense to lift Green Bay to 15th in average yards per carry (4.2) and 21st in rushing yards.

While their defense is also getting stronger against the pass, the Giants are simply getting the Packers at possibly the wrong time, as they have found some heat on the scoreboard and utilized their key pieces to move the football consistently. There is also some concern about how the Giants will respond out of the bye week, but history is on their side with a 23-12 record in the last 35 games coming out of the bye, which is the fifth-best record in the league.

The Giants started to move the football, protect it better, and score more points in their last two games behind quarterback Tommy DeVito, who has rallied 697 passing yards, seven touchdowns, and a 2-1 record in his first three NFL starts. Keeping their win streak and meager playoff hopes alive will depend on another solid performance for a team that hasn’t scored more than 20 points in all but two games this season.

Standing in the Giants favor is their rolling defense, which forced nine turnovers against Washington and New England and held both teams to 26 combined points to cool off the opponent scoring woes that plagued them against Dallas and Las Vegas. It’ll be a tough task with a Packers team that doesn’t turn the football over, but if the points pattern prevails, it’ll give DeVito and company a chance to upset the betting market again.

Until we see it unfurl on Monday night, the Packers have earned themselves some faith in the hearts and minds of the oddsmakers entering the final stretch of the regular season. The Giants will have to prove they deserve that and more on the primetime stage and in the pursuit of what could be an interesting finish to a rollercoaster year.

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