Will the New York Giants make the point spread against the New Orleans Saints in week 14?

The New York Giants, leading the NFC East meet the struggling New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon. NY with 7 wins and 5 losses are coming off a loss last week with the Redskins and having lost 2 of their last 3 games after a 6 and 3 start.

New Orleans, at 5 and 7 has had a rocky season so far. The Saints have lost 2 of their last 3 games and after having a 3 and 6 start.

Considering that they are ranked 6th in overall offense and 3rd in passing it is difficult to understand why New Orleans hasn’t won more games. Execution in the red zone is one of their issues. The same thing actually plagues the Giants at times, but they have managed to make enough conversions along with a mix of big plays to win them more games.

And when you look at the stats of Saints quarterback Drew Brees, with 3674 yards and 31 touchdowns you would think their record would be much better than it is. But he has also thrown 16 interceptions. 5 of those interceptions were in last week’s game against the Atlanta Falcons and that was the first time in his career that he had ever thrown 5 in a single game.

There is no doubt that Brees is a good passer. He is in his 12th season and he has passed the 5000 yards per season mark twice, in 2009 and 2011. Although it is actually statistically possible, he will have difficultly doing that this year since he would have to consistently average over 330 yards per game for the next four games.

I look for Brees to add some positive numbers to his total this week and I’m sure he will throw it plenty of times to receivers like Marques Colston and Lance Moore, each with over 800 yards this year. But I also think the Giants defense will come to the party and spoil the fun for Brees on a number of occasions. In addition to the rest of the defensive line for New York, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big plays by Michael Boley and Chase Blackburn.

You just know the entire Giants defense has been studying the replays from last week’s game, looking at how Atlanta had Brees off his game and making mistakes.

But, is it safe to bet the Giants will beat the point spread against the Saints?

A few weeks ago when it looked like they were settling down and had won 3 games in a row, I would have said no. But just as they were getting on a roll, they lost to San Francisco and then to Atlanta last week so it appears they just can’t stay consistent.

And when you look at the Giants you see a much stronger and more rounded offense. Their passing game is ranked 9th and their running game ranked 15 earning them the 10th position in offense overall. The passing game’s success is due in part to Eli Manning.

When Eli gets the pass protection he needs, he will find an open receiver and get the ball to him, and when he has guys like Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks or Martellus Bennett in the secondary they will drive the ball down the field.

Between the passing talent of Eli Manning with capable receivers, and the rushing capabilities of the likes of Ahmad Bradshaw or Andre Brown and others I think the New York Giants can and will beat the New Orleans Saints and they will make the 5 point spread.

No matter the outcome I think it will be an exciting game and one filled with a lot of play action. We could easily see a combined total of 600 yards or more in the air since each quarterback is more than capable of racking up 300 yards.

However, I am guessing that NY may stay on the conservative side a bit and mix in a healthy dose of rushing plays since that has worked well for them in many cases and then going back to passing plays at other times.

At the time I published this article at close to midnight on Wednesday night the line on this game had the Giants picked to win by 4.5 points at Bet Online as well as at Sportsbetting. William Hill had the spread at 5 points so it looks like a lot of the bookies are pretty close.

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