Credit:Suzy Allman for The New York Times
The Giants were finally able to get their first win last Sunday vs the Houston Texans. It was a game controlled by the run game and Rashad Jennings who ran for 176 yards and a touchdown. Eli finally got the ball to Victor Cruz who reached the end zone in that game as well. Lastly the defense finally forced turnovers and put the offense in good position to score points. All in all a solid win right?
Well, although it was a positive game for the Gmen and it showed reason for optimism I just didn’t see enough to be fully confident in them just yet. They did play the Texans on a week that one of the best rushers in the NFL, Arian Foster, didn’t play. Also even though they did create turnovers on interceptions, it was Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. He’s always been a turnover waiting to happen.
This week they will be playing a Redskins team who is lead by Kirk Cousins who has proved to be a very solid pocket passer so far this year and in just two games has lead the team to a league high, 75 points, in that two week span. He doesn’t hold onto the ball very long therefor giving defenses a tough chance at getting to him fast enough. Not only that, but his average throw distance is 10.8 yards allowing him to have a 40% first down rate.
DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon are a viable duo and with the Giants allowing DeAndre Hopkins to rack up 116 yards last week while holding Andre Johnson in check, I could see a big night coming from at least one of the two. DeSean has been the Giants Kryptonite going back to his days in Philly and coming of a huge game Sunday, he and Kirk Cousins seem to have found something good.
Now the Giants did bring in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie who, according to Jackson himself, can run step by step with him. So things might be different this time around. If they can stop the pass and be able to focus on the run they will have a good chance in this one, but even that isn’t an easy task.Washington runningback, Alfred Morris, is fourth in rushing yards behind Rashad Jennings.
Rashad Jennings on the other hand will be key to getting the Giants going early on, but Washington limited LeSean Mcoy to only 22 yards on 19 carries last week. However, I’m not putting anything past Jennings. I said it before the season and I stand by it: Rashad Jennings is underrated and has what it takes to be a complete 3 down back in this league.
For now I just simply don’t like the matchup in this one for New York. The Redskins have the second most offensive yards in the league and New York allows the 22nd most yards in the league. The Giants will most likely need to beat the Redskins in a shootout and from what we’ve seen so far from them this season I just don’t see that happening, especially if most of their yards have to come trough the air.
Prediction: 31-24 Redskins over Giants