Lions @ Giants Preview
By author
Is this a trap game? Not if you’re coming from the Lions perspective. The Lions who have played well against formidable opponents in the Bears, Eagles, Vikings, Packers… are coming off a very impressive performance at home where they dominated Steve Spagnuolo’s Rams last week. The Giants are coming off back to back wins for the first time since the beginning of last season when they went 5-0…
So which team has more momentum heading into this Sunday’s matchup? Like Tom Coughlin always says, we’ll see. Checkout the breakout down below.
Offensively, the Giants really have only their running game to boast about when you look at the comparison. Given the blurry eye test — the Lions and Giants offenses cancel eachother out for the most part. Eli Manning and Shaun Hill have extremely similar stats, and both teams have some big playmakers working for them that offset. WRs Hakeem Nicks and Calvin Johnson, RBs Ahmad Bradshaw and Jahvid Best… TEs Pettigrew and Boss are also dangerous weapons. So on offense for both teams, it’s likely going to come down to minimizing mistakes and turnovers. For both, that means establishing a running presence early to open up the offense for the rest of the game… and with a lightning quick rookie in Jahvid Best, the Lions can accomplish that goal if the Giants aren’t careful and take him as a serious threat. Based on the last 2 weeks though, I think Perry Fewell has been preparing his defense well. But I digress… for the Giants offensively they’ve shown they can run on the best run defenses in the league, they will certainly be able to exploit the 133 yards per game the Lions routinely give up. From there, Eli Manning will look to point out why the Lions give up 235 yards on average per game through the air…. perhaps C.C. Brown is finally going to find out the meaning of consistency from the Giants point of view.
Defensively, the Giants are the #1 team in the NFL. They simply have dominated with their front 4 and pressure packages, and the secondary has clearly been reinforced and has held up extremely well against some potent passing attacks. Coming off 2 dominant performances, the Giants defense looks to continue to roll. And if you can ignore the score of the Titans game, defensively they largely accomplished some good thing there too. So there is some momentum there for the G-men.
The Lions, despite giving up tons of yardage only have allowed 22.4 points per game against some explosive opponents. They have a 4-3 base as well that may be subscribing to the “bend but don’t break” philosophy just like the Giants have shown to be effective. And according to Zac Snyder in my enemy exchange article, the Lions are going to try to force some turnovers on the Giants this week to even things up a bit.
Who can make the least amount of mistakes when the other defense is trying to force your hand into making them? Have the Giants started to turn the corner with their turnover struggles? Have the Lions put their 23 straight road losses behind them?
Prediction:
34 – 17 Giants
Projected Leaders
Eli Manning: 20/30 225 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
Ahmad Bradshaw: 20 carries, 100 yards, 1 TD
Brandon Jacobs: 10 carries, 50 yards, 1 TD
Hakeem Nicks: 5 rec, 80 yards, 1 TD
Steve Smith: 10 rec, 80 yards, 1 TD
[Chart via NFL.com]