NFL FOOTBALL BETTING PREDICTION - NEW YORK GIANTS @ NEW ENGLAND PATS

NFL Football

2008-02-03 - New York Giants at New England Pats

A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown

NEW ENGLAND

New England enter a game that many of their players will be fully used to playing in as this is their 4th Superbowl in 7 seasons. After securing a 16-0 regular season, they proceeded to beat both the Jacksonville Jaguars and the San Diego Chargers in the playoffs to play this final game in their quest for perfection. The Patriots are the only side in NFL history that has had an 18-0 record during the season.

Since their bye week, the Patriots have only played 3 games on the road coming into the big one. They might have blown out Buffalo in the first of those games, but the last 2 saw them win close battles against the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants. In their last 10 games, the Patriots have only beaten 3 teams by more than 11 points and only one of those teams made the playoffs this season in Pittsburgh. Both of their last 2 road games ended with them winning by 3 points.

Jabbar Gaffney looks like he might not be able to take part for the Patriots this Sunday and will definately be limited in plays.

NEW YORK GIANTS

New York Giants have gone an incredible 9-1 on the road, winning 9 in a row since losing in Week 1 in Dallas. They had to go through the playoffs the hard way with 3 wins on the road, winning at number 4 seed Tampa Bay, then beating the number 1 seed Dallas and finally knocking off the number 2 seeded Green Bay Packers at the historic Lambeau Field.

Eli Manning has really grown as a QB over the last few weeks and his leadership skills will be tested. There are also some similarities between this Giants team and the Pittsburgh Steelers that won the SuperBowl in 2006 who also managed to win 3 road games in the playoffs to make the final game.

The Giants come into this game with 4 wins from their previous 5 games, the only loss coming against the New England Patriots in Week 17. They should have learned a number of things from that game, and if a couple of plays had been executed better, they could possibly have won that match and ended the Patriots undefeated season.

They have scored at least 21 points in each of their last 5 games and the defence has done its job by holding teams to less than 21 points in 4 of 5 games. The pass rush of the Giants has to make Tom Brady feel the pressure and hopefully force some mistakes as the Chargers did in the playoffs.

Kevin Dockery is still unlikely to make this game and his presence will be missed on the defence. Plaxico Burress will play but has not been practicing while a number of Giants have suffered with flu in recent days.

STATISTICS

The Giants have won 7 of their last 8 games against the spread while the Patriots have lost 7 of their last 8 against the spread. New York comfortably covered the spread in the meeting between the 2 sides in Week 17.

The game will be played on grass where New York are 9-6 this season against the spread, whereas New England are 4-2 on the same surface. The Giants went 9-1 against the spread in road games this season and the Patriots were 5-3 against the spread in their road games.

PREDICTION :

The old battle between Boston and New York continues here and I would expect it to be another close contest between the 2 sides. I can expect a heavy dose of running from the Giants in an effort to keep the Pats offense off the field but Eli Manning will have to make some plays if they are to succeed.

Everyone knows what the Patriots can do and they deserve to be favourites but I still feel a shock could be on the cards here. New York's run to the SuperBowl has been something that could be written in Hollywood and there could yet be the fairytale ending for the younger Manning.

The Pick :

BEST BETTING TIP :

NEW YORK GIANTS WIN (VERY SMALL BET)