Daniel Jones will make his sixth NFL prime-time start tonight when the New York Giants visit the Washington Football Team on TSN.

He’s still looking for his first prime-time win.

After a brutal 27-13 loss to the Denver Broncos in their season opener that was even more lopsided than the final score indicated, we’ll hear a lot about the Giants’ struggles throughout the countdown to kickoff as they look to avoid a 0-2 start for the fifth straight season.

The G-Men haven’t won a game in Week 1 or Week 2 since 2016 – they’re a combined 0-9 in the first two weeks of the season over that span.

At the same time, the one time that bettors have felt comfortable with having a little faith in New York is against its division rival in Washington.

The Giants have won five straight head-to-head meetings. They went 4-1 against the spread in those contests.  

So, what can we expect from Jones tonight?

Can we count on the level of play we saw from him in four straight wins versus Washington? Or are we in store for another prime-time letdown?

Here’s the Morning Coffee for Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021.

Who can we trust in NFC East showdown?

Jones is 4-0 against Washington in his career. He’s 4-19 against all other opponents.

If I was head coach Ron Rivera, I’d have a massive, framed photo of Jones celebrating a touchdown versus Washington with that stat in big, bold print placed in the middle of the locker room before tonight’s game.

The Football Team opened as a 4.5-point favourite on the lookahead line, but that number is down to 3.5 with Taylor Heinicke set to get the start in place of the injured Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Heinicke looked good in relief of Fitzpatrick in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, and Rivera has made it clear that he’s confident in the 28-year-old as the team’s best option moving forward with Fitzpatrick set to miss six to eight weeks. 

Coming off a Week 1 in which underdogs went a combined 12-4 against the spread, it’s hard for me to get there with the Football Team, giving up more than a field goal.

With the total set at just 40.5, oddsmakers are expecting a low-scoring game, and a lower expected points scored should make it more difficult for the favourite to cover the number.

Still, the Giants looked terrible on both sides of the football in Week 1, and now they must travel on a short week.

Even if New York pulls off the upset, I can’t see them going into Washington and winning big.

I don’t feel great about it, but here’s the two-team tease for Thursday Night Football: Washington +3.5, Under 47.5 (-140)

This could be a long night.

Ray closes on Cole in AL Cy Young markets

Robbie Ray struck out 13 batters, giving up just one earned run over seven innings of work as the Toronto Blue Jays (-180) beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 on Wednesday.

Ray improved to 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three September starts. That’s on the heels of posting a 1.76 ERA in six starts in the month of August.

Ray entered Wednesday’s start at +150 to win the American League Cy Young Award.

After another brilliant performance, he’s down to +115 to win the award as the second choice behind Gerrit Cole of the New York Yankees.

With Ray set to make as many as three more starts over Toronto’s final 16 games, the AL Cy Young race will be fun to watch over the final three weeks.

 

The Blue Jays have Thursday off before welcoming the Minnesota Twins to town for a three-game set that begins on Friday night.

Toronto is 16-3 since Aug. 28.

However, with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees both winning on Thursday, the Blue Jays remain locked in a three-way battle with their AL East rivals for the two wild-card spots.

Rahm the favourite to win PGA Tour opener

Jon Rahm will enter the first tournament of the 2021 PGA Tour season as an overwhelming favourite to win.

With the majority of the world’s best getting some much-needed rest ahead of next weekend’s Ryder Cup, the world No. 1 will be the only player in the top-15 in the Official World Golf Ranking to compete this week.

As of this morning, Rahm is +410 to win the Fortinet Championship.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, those are the second-shortest odds by any player in an event with a cut over the past five years.

Justin Thomas was +400 to win the CIMB Classic in 2017.

The guys from Golf Talk Canada weighed in with their best bets to win the Fortinet Championship.

It will certainly be interesting to see if Rahm can deliver as the obvious favourite to win the event.

While he led the PGA Tour in top-10 finishes, scoring average and official money, he can match last season’s win total at the Fortinet Championship after recording just one win in 2020-21.