New York Giants: Madden 19 predicts Week 8 slugfest in rivalry game

Only true New York Giants fans are still watching despite the fact that for the second consecutive year, before the midway point of the season, the team is theoretically out of playoff contention.

NFC East rivals and the first place Washington Redskins will visit the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium for a Sunday matinée where the G-Men will look to play spoilers. The game will have a different feel to it with superstar defensive tackle, Damon “Snacks” Harrison, and former 2016 first-round selection, cornerback Eli Apple, off of the roster and playing elsewhere.

From here on out, everyone on Big Blue will be fighting for their jobs with head coach Pat Shurmur and GM Dave Gettleman using the rest of the season to decide who will be a part of the organization’s rebuild and who will be swapped for draft picks.

There has been plenty of conversation surrounding two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Eli Manning, but no one would ever suspect anything was wrong after listening to his interviews each week. Calm through the constant scrutiny, Easy E is weathering another New York storm and is confident he can stop the free fall that this team has been on since the beginning of 2017’s season.

There is no other team in the NFC East that Manning has had more success against than Washington. In 27 career games against the ‘Skins, Eli boasts an 18-9 record, and the Giants have won seven of their last 10 games against them.

Washington is the lead dog in a division where the rest of the teams within are struggling to find their identities. Despite Big Blue’s troubles, they haven’t been a complete pushover in 2018. Four of the Giants six losses have been decided by one score with three of those four decided by five points or less.

On the other side, Washington is coming off of a Week 7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys where a fortunate snap-infraction penalty saved a would-be, game-tying field goal from kicker Brett Maher in the finals seconds of the fourth quarter.

Can the underdog New York Giants pull off the upset? Or will Sunday’s game be just another disappointment in what has been a season full of them? The reliable people over at EA Sports Madden 19 have some answers and predictions.

Passing stats

• Eli Manning –  23/39, 269 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, 97.0 QBR
• Alex Smith – 34/44, 360 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, 106.2 QBR

At this point, you are either a Manning defendant or a Manning despondent. There is no in-between, no gray area, no glass-half-full/half-empty attitude toward No. 10. With a golden “C” on his right chest, a patch he has proudly worn since 2007 when commissioner Roger Goodell allowed the captain’s badge to be worn throughout the league, Manning has agreed to shoulder the blame for the team’s failures whether he’s fully or just partially responsible.

He is, of course, not 100 percent at fault for why the New York Giants are an abysmal 4-19 in their last 23 games.

But the question of whose fault it is no longer matters. With each lost season, the soon-to-be 38-year-old is another year older and another year closer to the expiration of his four-year, $84 million contract, which runs through the 2019 season.

With a no-trade clause in his deal, Manning is likely not leaving this season despite the franchise’s apparent effort to start rebuilding now. As for 2019, it’s a different story as he’ll account for a hefty $23.2 million cap hit where the Giants could save $17 million if they release him before June 1, per Spotrac.

The only thing Manning can do is keep his head down and play ball with the hopes that things get better. Winning cures everything, as he has learned time and time again throughout his career. The only difference is that the clock is now overwhelmingly against him.

Rushing stats

New York Giants:

• Saquon Barkley – 23 carries, 101 yards
• Elijhaa Penny – 4 carries, 19 yards, 1 TD

Washington Redskins: 

• Chris Thompson – 25 carries, 79 yards
• Adrian Peterson – 5 carries, 22 yards, 1 TD

The lone bright spot for the New York Giants has been rookie running back sensation, Saquon Barkley. Unfortunately, Barkley fell just six yards short in Week 7 of tying Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt’s rookie record of seven consecutive 100-yard games from scrimmage set in 2017.

Still, that hasn’t stopped his Sunday opponent and future Hall of Fame running back, Adrian Peterson, from raving about Barkley’s ability.

From one legendary back to a hopeful future one, that kind of praise has not gone unnoticed. Madden 19 predicts that Saquon will have a solid game against Washington and eclipse 100 yards on the ground for just the third time this season.

Afterward, Barkley and Peterson engage in a post-game jersey-swap—a symbolic representation of one great passing down the torch to another.

Receiving stats

New York Giants:

• Odell Beckham Jr. – 5 rec., 57 yards, 1 TD
• Russell Shepard – 5 rec., 44 yards 
• Saquon Barkley – 4 rec., 67 yards
• Evan Engram – 3 rec., 44 yards, 1 TD
• Sterling Shepard – 2 rec., 21 yards 
• Bennie Fowler– 1 rec., 7 yards

Washington Redskins:

• Josh Doctson– 10 rec., 61 yards, 1 TD
• Jordan Reed – 7 rec., 97 yards, 1 TD
• Jamison Crowder – 6 rec., 82 yards
• Chris Thompson – 4 rec., 35 yards
• Paul Richardson – 4 rec., 34 yards

Superstar wideout Odell Beckham Jr. has been doing his part in the Giants inconsistent offense and has lived up to his five-year, $90 million contract thus far. OBJ currently ranks in the top five of the league in both receptions (53) and receiving yards (649), per ESPN NFL stats.

The only knock is that Beckham and Manning have yet to get on the same page when inside the red zone, as OBJ has only been able to record two touchdowns through seven games in 2018. Madden predicts that Beckham will grab his third score of the season and first at home for the year.

As for the New York Giants second passing score, EA Sports has tight end Evan Engram finding paydirt for just the second time this season. The team desperately needs a third wideout to step up with Cody Latimer out for the year with an injured hamstring and Russell Shepard unable to get things going.

The G-Men have signed Latimer’s former teammate, Bennie Fowler, last week and promoted journeyman wideout Corey Coleman from their practice squad ahead of Week 8’s matchup. Hopefully, one of the two can step up to take the pressure off of Manning and provide a much-needed boost for the rest of the Giants passing game.

Total team stats

New York Giants:

• Total offense: 392 yards
• Total team: 431 yards
• Rushing: 123 yards
• Passing: 269 yards
• Turnovers: 0
• Penalties: 2-15
• Time of Possession: 13:49*

Washington Redskins:

• Total offense: 468 yards
• Total team: 520 yards
• Rushing: 108 yards
• Passing: 360 yards
• Turnovers: 1
• Penalties: 2-25
• Time of Possession: 14:08*

(*Madden 19 simulation runs six-minute quarters for the most realistic stat outputs)

There will be more interest surrounding the team on Monday following this game when the New York Giants front office gets back on the phone and starts fielding offers for players on their roster. There’s a high probability that some of Sunday’s starters will not be around the following week when the Giants take their bye.

So is the nature of the NFL where Shurmur and Gettleman have been left with no choice but to embrace a team rebuild. Tuesday, Oct. 30 marks the NFL’s trade deadline, and there have been rumblings around corner Janoris Jenkins and defensive end Olivier Vernon, who sport hefty contracts signed during former GM Jerry Reese’s and ex-head coach Ben McAdoo’s leadership.

Expect both of those players to have great games against a Washington offense, which ranks 26th in the NFL in passing yards per game (218.5) and 15th in rushing yards per game (119), consequently upping their trade market stocks.

Final

The New York Giants have been on the wrong side of some close games and in the past two seasons, placekickers like the Philadelphia Eagles Jake Elliott, Carolina Panthers Graham Gano and Atlanta Falcons Giorgio Tavecchio have all hit their career-best field goals at the expense of Big Blue.

Madden predicts that Redskins kicker Dustin Hopkins will appear next on the list. In a rivalry game that spills over into overtime, both teams take Week 8 all the way down to the final minute. Just when it appears a tie will be the outcome, quarterback Alex Smith leads Washington down the field to set up a game-winning field goal with just under a minute left.

Hopkins drills it. Washington maintains their NFC East lead, and the New York Giants enter their Week 9 bye with more pressing questions about the organization’s future then they had when entering another ill-fated Sunday afternoon.

Washington Redskins 27, New York Giants 24