Sunday Night NFL Preview
by Rocky Atkinson
The New York Giants are coming off their first loss of the season at New Orleans last week in a game where their defense was torched for 48 points and nearly 500 yards of total offense. It doesn’t get any easier this week going up against Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals’ potent passing attack. After starting the season 1-2, Arizona has won back to back games against Houston and Seattle to put them at 3-2 SU and 3-2 ATS. The Giants meanwhile had been a covering machine before last weekend’s beat down and they are now 4-1-1 ATS and 5-1 SU. New York is also 17-5 ATS versus a team with a winning record in their last 22 and 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 home games. Odds makers have installed the Giants as 7 point home favorites.
Arizona struggled in their first three games but put up 27 and 28 points in their last two games. They haven’t been as explosive as they were a year ago, averaging just 22.4 points a game. The passing attack with Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin has still been solid but the Cardinals despite drafting Chris “Beanie” Wells in the first round has had virtually no run game whatsoever as they are averaging just 57.6 yards per game on the ground. The duo of Wells and Tim Hightower will have to establish the run in order to keep the Giants’ attacking defense from teeing off on Warner. Another concern is the health of Anquan Boldin as he listed as questionable for Sunday’s game. New York’s defense has been spectacular against opposing teams’ passing games and if Boldin can’t go, there will be one less weapon for the defense to worry about.
Defensively, the Cardinals have been poor against the pass which may give Eli Manning an ample opportunity to find Steve Smith and Mario Manningham deep down the field. Manning has done an extremely good job leading this offense thus far this season. He has thrown for nearly 1,400 yards and 11 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions. The Giants can also pound the rock with Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw. Rushing might be difficult against an Arizona run defense that is allowing just 59.6 yards rushing per game. This game may be put in the hands of the quarterbacks and it should be exciting to see Kurt Warner and Eli Manning go head-to-head.
In order to win this game, the Arizona secondary has got to play better than they have in the first 5 games of the season. They are giving up 265.2 yards passing per game and if they can’t find a way to stop the Giants wide receivers from finding holes in the defense it could be a long day. The key to this game for Arizona will be to pressure Eli Manning in order to prevent him from going through his progressions to find open receivers. If Manning has time, he is certainly capable of picking apart the back end of this Arizona defense.
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