NFL Preseason Preview: Jets vs. Giants Game Predictions

Written by Jake Thompson
Monday, 29 August 2011 21:46

It’s time for final score predictions in Monday’s NFL preseason game between the Jets and the Giants.

One of the good things to come from Hurricane Irene was that we now have a Monday night NFL preseason game since the New York Jets and the New York Giants were originally scheduled to meet up on Saturday with no football action today.  Let’s preview what each team is likely to do in this 7:05 PM ET game and then see if we can’t find a Jets vs. Giants bet that looks profitable next to our final score predictions.  Make sure to catch the Jets and Giants live on the NFL Network later tonight.

Week 3 is when most coaches leave their starters in for an extended look and with both the Giants and Jets having a week 4 preseason game on Thursday, tonight seems likely to be the last we see of the big names until the regular season starts.  New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin is 15-15 in the NFL preseason with the Giants, while New York Jets coach Rex Ryan sits at 5-5.  Although most coaches are usually looking for big efforts in week 3, Coughlin is just 2-5 in this situation and puts an emphasis on his players’ health.  Ryan is 1-1 since taking over in New York and I have a feeling he’ll allow his team to go a little harder than the Giants are planning on for themselves.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning was injured in last year’s preseason game against the Jets and I just can’t see this team taking many chances offensively.  Look for New York to keep it pretty basic in an effort to make sure they don’t suffer any further injuries.  The Giants opened it up a little bit last week and are one of the few NFL teams that don’t always use week 3 to play their starters until halftime or longer.  The Jets have a terrific defense and I don’t see them allowing many points in the first half of this game.

The Jets’ offense has some new faces and I think Ryan will have quarterback Mark Sanchez throwing the ball quite a bit to get into a rhythm with his new wide receivers.  The Giants have a talented defense but I have to give the first half edge to the Jets here simply because I believe they’ll try to score instead of just running through the motions.  Although the Jets will be trying to score a bit more, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be successful at it, however.

One edge that the Giants do have is with their backup quarterbacks, and I could see the experience of David Carr and Sage Rosenfels shining through in the 2nd half.  The Jets are planning to play youngsters Greg McElroy and Drew Willy in the later stages of this preseason game with veteran Mark Brunell dinged up.  Even if the Giants are just going through the motions in the later stages of this game, I think they are much more likely to score 2nd half points than the Jets.

Online sportsbooks have the Jets as 3-point favorites on the spread and close to 60% of tracked NFL bettors are taking them at that line.  The total sits at 36 points and has been bet up from the opening line of 34.5.  I am looking at a low-scoring game and the under looks to be the best bet of the bunch.  The Giants' defense is good enough to limit the Jets in the 1st half and then the Giants should start to take over in the 2nd half despite being limited by a safe game plan.

Jets vs. Giants Final Score Predictions:

Jets 13

Giants 10