Back the Under in Giants vs. Vikings

Giants vs. Vikings, 4:30 ET

Of all games that happen for the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs in this Wild Card round, this, to me, is the least interesting game. I've probably spent more time looking into it than others because I was looking for different angles. If you start looking into the game, a lot of experts are saying it could be a coinflip game. Let's take a look at how I think it will go.

The Giants are a team I didn't expect to make the playoffs at the beginning of the year. I honestly didn't think that they would even improve much from the previous year. Well, I was wrong, and congratulations to all Giants fans out there because you kind of deserve a winning team after many years of frustrating losses. The Giants haven't been exactly consistent either though. Even over their past five games, they've won just two of them. They took down the Commanders - a team that was falling apart a bit when they played - and the Colts... one of the worst teams in football. One of the losses was against the Vikings. In that game, the Giants did have a lead heading into the fourth quarter and then they lost as time expired. So, clearly, it was a tight matchup. And, this was a game that was on the road for New York.

I think Minnesota might be the worst-ever 12-win team. I'm sure Vikings fans wouldn't agree with me, but as of a few weeks ago they had the worst point differential of all playoff teams. Now they are about even, but guess who is right next to them... that's right, the Giants. At home, the Vikings are better and have just a 1.8 point differential. The Giants on the road have a -1.4 differential. The edge the Vikings have here is that they have the best wide receiver in all of football. If the Giants can hold him down, something they weren't able to accomplish in the first game, they will win. If they give up another 130+ yards to him, I'm not sure how New York can pull it out. I think you have to stop the run if you're Minnesota. You can live with Daniel Jones being the guy that beats you. If Saquon Barkley runs wild on you, I think you're in trouble. In the first game, they amassed 126 rushing yards against the Vikings. That has to be reduced.

Say what you want about this, but I think that if the books really expected New York to win this game, the total would be lower. 48 points seems a bit high for a Giants game this season. In fact, over their last 10 games only one had a total of 48, and that was the first game against the Vikings. I'm taking the under in this game. I don't expect a shootout.

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