Giants @ Jaguars

Giants +4
Tonight’s contest has The Dean befuddled. Much has been made of the Giants injuries and they are definitely a cause for concern. However, it is only fair to note that the Jaguars are not entering tonight with the roster it would like to put out there. The Jaguars had a bad loss at home last week to the Texans and the Giants had an embarrassing loss last week to the Bears. Neither team has done anything historically impressive on Monday Nights either. There really isn’t much to sink your teeth into. To support that, this game can be played anywhere between Jags -3.5 to -4.5. It is rare to have that much diversity in a MNF matchup.

The injuries are dominating this conversation so let’s take a closer look there. The Giants injuries on offense are focused on WR Amani Toomer and T Luke Pettigout. With all due respect to Toomer, the Giants can still play their brand of football and make plays without him in the lineup. Pettigout, in The Dean’s opinion, receives more credit than he deserves. He is good for a handful of false-start and holding penalties a game, so whatever you lose in his ability you gain in dumb penalties. The Giants defense has certainly taken the lead in injuries to an entire unit. Arrington, Strahan and Umenyiora will definitely be missed. The Jaguars however are averaging under 17 points a game in their last 4, and one of them was a 37 point outburst against the Titans. Remove that game and they are averaging 10 points.

Enough of the chatter. The Giants can still score as Barber, Manning, Shockey and Burress are still on the field. The Dean has visions of punt after punt after punt tonight. With that in mind, The Dean recommends taking the points and the Giants but playing it close to the vest and making it a 1-star play.

REVIEW: Giants 10 – Jaguars 26

Didn’t think it would be Eli to stink the place up.