Giants to Win Crucial Matchup

Best Bet

3 Pts New York Giants -2.5 Handicap to beat Washington Redskins 20/21 (Ladbrokes)

It’s week 12 in the NFL and things are really heating up as we enter the business end of the regular season. A few teams are already all but locked in as playoff teams and they will try and secure some more wins in coming weeks to make sure they earn a strong seed. Notably however there are a tonne of teams that are close to .500 or better. All of these teams have a legitimate chance of making the playoffs, so the coming weeks will see some great matchups.

This week we had a few fancies but will stick with our usual protocol of only backing one team. We really fancy the Giants on the spread who currently sit at .500 and have much to play for against their NFC East rivals Washington. The Redskins sit one win behind the Giants so this game has huge playoff implications given the Giants currently head the division.

One thing that stands out when analysing the Giants and the Redskins is that New York hold a much better point differential at this point (over 50 points stronger). This is a key difference and maybe indicates that the Giants should be better than their actual record. These two teams have met already where the Giants cruised to an 11 point win extending their dominant win streak over their divisional rivals to five in a row.

The right noises have been coming out of the Giants camp this week and they seem fired up to get this crucial win. It seems like they know the importance of this game, and will be ready to leave it all on the field this weekend. Manning put up good numbers against the Redskins earlier this season and we see no reason why he won’t put up similar or better numbers this week. He is having a strong season with limited interceptions and lots of passing touchdowns, and he will see this week as an opportunity to exploit a poor pass defence of Washington.

One thing that does count against the Giants this week is the impressive home record of the Redskins. They are 4-1 on their own turf, but given all of the above and the fact that the Giants are coming off a rest week, whereas the Redskins are coming off a pasting against the Panthers, we are happy to side with the Giants.