The lowly Washington Football Team travel to MetLife to take on the winless New York Giants today (1pm ET Sunday; TV: Live on Fox).
The home team is a three-point favorite despite being 0-5 on the season. The Giants are coming off a heartbreaking loss against the Cowboys. This was arguably their best performance on the season, but they were still unable to get in the win column. They lost 37-34 on a last second field goal by Greg Zuerlein.
Daniel Jones played fairly well but was unable to find the end zone. He was 20/33, 222 yards passing, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Giants had to settle for four field goals, which was the difference in the game.
The Washington Football team is coming off another disappointing loss in which the offense was abysmal. There were a few bright spots when Kyle Allen was on the field, but when he went down with an injury they were unable to move the ball. The main story was Alex Smith taking the field after recovering from a gruesome leg injury. It was incredible to see him make it all the way back, but they were unable to do anything with him under center. He finished the game with 37 yards passing and was sacked six times.
Kyle Allen is set to return this week and make his second start of the season. Allen played fairly well in his brief appearance against a tough Rams defense. He was 9/13 for 74 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He had a rushing touchdown, which was their lone touchdown of the game. Allen is certainly serviceable and looked much more comfortable than Smith did. I expect that with another week of practice under his belt he will be able to move the ball and help this offense score.
Last season Allen started 12 games for the Panthers when Cam Newton went down and they were able to average 24.9 points per game during his time as the starter. Allen is familiar with Ron Rivera’s offense and is able to run it fairly well.
Expect them to be able to move the ball against a Giants defense that gives up an average of 26.6 points per game. The Washington defense is supposed to be their strength but they have given up an average of 28.4 points per game. Both of these defenses can be exploited on the ground. The Giants defense gives up an average of 110.6 yards on the ground per game and Washington gives up 129.6 yards per game. Expect both teams to run the ball well, which should help open up the passing games for the two relatively inexperienced quarterbacks. Both offenses have enough weapons to move the ball and ultimately score.
Our Preview’s Washington vs NY Giants Predictions & Betting Picks Verdict
We are going to be rolling with the over, which is currently sitting at 42.5 points with the American online sports bookmakers. This is the lowest total on the board. The next closest total is over/under 45 in the Bears versus Panthers game and Broncos versus Patriots game.
We think this total is too low and a slight overreaction to what we saw last week when Alex Smith took over and the Washington Football Team was unable to do anything. This total opened at 44.5 and has been bet down slightly. As of Saturday afternoon 62% of bets and 57% of money was coming in on the over. We are going to be joining the 62% of bettors and are expecting points here. We are less confident in either defenses being able to get enough stops and think both offenses will show up.
It has been profitable to bet the over in games featuring a winless home favorite early on in the season. The total is 40-22 to the over for winless home favorites in weeks 3-6. We are going to side with this trend and expect these two NFC East basement dwellers to beat up on each other and put up some points. We see this as a 24-23 win for the Washington Football Team. So these are our two betting picks and culmination of this preview’s WFT vs NYG predictions:
- Go over 42.5 points @ -116 with Bookmaker. It is over 43pts @ -110 with Intertops and -115 with Bovada.
- We would also play the road dog on the moneyline, which is currently WFT +110 via Bookmaker. If you are more conservative you can grab Washington +2.5pts on the spread @ -110 with Intertops or -111 with Bookmaker. It is +3pts @ -125 with Bovada.
Alex Uplinger is a sports betting analyst, writer, podcast producer and an expert on NFL and college basketball. As well as his football previews for USA Betting, Alex produces and co-hosts an NFL show for Full Slate and a sports betting podcast on the Blue Wire Network.