The NFL will open up Week 6 by conjuring up memories of two of the most compelling Super Bowls of all-time as the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots. Things get underway at 8:20 EST on Thursday, October 10 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Fans can tune in to watch on either Fox or the NFL Network.
As we know, the Giants got the better of the Patriots in two different Super Bowls, but New England is favored by 16.5 points on Thursday. The over/under for the game is set at 44 points. Be sure to check out a full list of the Week 6 NFL odds.
The 2019 season continues to be a cakewalk for the Patriots, who are the only team to win five games in the first five weeks. To be fair, they had a close call in Buffalo a couple of weeks ago and were a little fortunate to win despite scoring just one offensive touchdown. Meanwhile, the other four teams the Patriots have beaten at the start of the year have combined for exactly one win. The Pats are fresh off a 33-7 drubbing of the Redskins, one of three teams they’ve played that are still searching for their first win of the year. Yes, the schedule has been easy, but the Patriots have also been dominant against that ease schedule.
Moving forward, it doesn’t get much more difficult for the Patriots until the calendar flips to November. New England will be heavy favorites for the rest of October. Of course, with the Bills at 4-1, there’s a little bit of pressure on the Patriots to keep winning so they can stay on top of the AFC East.
As for the Giants, they suffered their first setback of the Daniel Jones era last week, losing at home to the Vikings 28-10. It was a disappointing performance on both sides of the ball, especially coming off a convincing win over Washington the week before and a comeback win for Jones and the Giants in Week 3.
More importantly, last week’s loss dropped the Giants back below .500 ahead of their Thursday trip to New England. The good news is that they’re only a game behind both the Eagles and Cowboys inside the NFC East. But barring a surprising win on Thursday, the Giants are likely to slip further off the pace.
Obviously, this is a lot of points to eat, but the Patriots have won four of their five games by at least 16 points. To be fair, the Giants are a little better than most of the teams New England has faced. But I don’t think they’re that much better. It’ll be tough for the Giants to prepare for the juggernaut that is New England on a short week, especially when they have to play on the road. I’m gonna bet that this game gets a little out of hand and the Patriots are able to cover.
If this game were a few weeks from now, things might be a little different. But the Giants are hurting on both sides of the ball right now, which doesn’t help their chances. On offense, there’s a slight chance that Saquon Barkley will return from his ankle injury, but that feels unlikely to happen on a short week. Backup running back Wayne Gallman was knocked out with a concussion early in last week’s game and a return in a short week seems unlikely.
With both running backs sidelined, the Giants didn’t have much of a running game last week, making things tough on Jones against a talented Minnesota defense. Regardless of how well Jones played in his first couple of starts, facing a New England defense that’s shut down every team they’ve faced is going to be difficult without an adequate rushing attack. One has to believe that Bill Belichick is going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the rookie quarterback just to be cruel. Even with some nice receiving targets around him, it’s easy to envision Jones having a rough night against a team that’s giving up less than seven points per game.
On the other side of the ball, the Giants saw almost all of their starting linebackers sit out last week’s game due to injury. The result was the Vikings rushing for over 200 yards and Kirk Cousins looking like he was Tom Brady, completing 22 of his 27 passes for over 300 yards. Again, it’s hard to think that the Giants can do much better against the Patriots this week. When they’ve committed to running the ball this year, the Patriots have been productive. Plus, if the New York defense can make Cousins look like Brady, imagine what the real Brady can do against them.
To put it bluntly, Thursday’s game looks like a nightmare waiting to happen for the Giants. Their chances of winning are bleak, and even keeping the final score respectable seems like a tall order. Between their injuries and just general roster deficiencies, the Giants have a lot of weak areas that the Patriots will be able to exploit. I’ll eat the points and trust New England to bring their best effort and dominate the game.