New York Giants vs Atlanta Falcons – 8:15 EST, ESPN

On paper, a primetime matchup between the New York football Giants visiting the Atlanta Falcons is a must watch. Then you remember that Eli Manning is the starting quarterback for a primetime game for the second week in a row and you question if you will even be able to tolerate his poor play. Regardless, there are definitely storylines worth mentioning before these two teams square-off.

Looking at the Giants, they sit at 1-5 and appear to be one of the worst teams in football. They have an offense that struggles to push the ball downfield and also struggles to consistently move the chains. Their defense has also struggled to consistently get stops.

Saquon Barkley is one of the only bright spots of their team. The rookie running back has been electric. He has 811 scrimmage yards and six touchdowns through his first six games. Only four players have ever exceeded that total: Eric Dickerson, Billy Sims, Kareem Hunt, and Adrian Peterson. Even with these numbers, Barkley is boom or bust. He ranks 30th among 37 qualified runners in Football Outsiders’ success rate. This means that he is being stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage far too much. However, much of this has to do with poor offensive line play. Regardless, he leads the league in runs of over 20 yards with seven.

As I said before it is horrible watching Eli Manning play, but on the surface, it would be tough to tell because he is completing a career best 68 percent of his passes and averaging his highest yards per attempt since 2015. However when watching him play, you know he is done. He almost refuses to push the ball downfield and far too often just checks it down to a back or a check down receiver to gain a completion. This has had an effect on Odell Beckham Jr. as he has been inconsistent in his game per game production. Some games Beckham reaches 100 plus yards and others it appears he is not even on the field. The Falcon defense is plagued with injuries so this might be a week that Eli and Odell can really get going.

Atlanta sits at an underwhelming 2-4. They currently sit 3 games behind the NFC South leading Saints and it is do or die for this franchise if they want any chance to sniff the playoffs this seaon. The main pitfall with the Falcons this year has been injuries. Devonta Freeman is out for the year as is starting linebacker Deion Jones and starting safeties Keanu Neal and Robert Alford. The loss of Freeman particularly hurts their run game as Tevin Coleman and rookie Ito Smith have been unable to pick up the slack. Coleman is averaging 3.7 yards per carry, a career low, and Smith is averaging only 3 yards a carry.

Their main form of offense is coming from Matt Ryan throwing to Julio Jones. Jones is on pace for a 1888 yard season but has yet to score a touchdown. After only scoring 3 touchdowns last year it is almost to the point where it seems like the coaching staff for Atlanta just does not want to throw the ball to Jones when they get into the red zone.

The Giants pass defense has been horrible this season so I fully expect Matt Ryan and company to air it out all night.

I expect big games from Julio Jones and Saquon Barkley. I think Odell is hit or miss in terms of big time production, but without two starting safeties, I feel like he will get his fair share of opportunities down the field. Regardless, I think the Falcons have more to play for and playing at home, they should be able to pull off the win. Falcons win 24-14.

– T

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