Can you believe it’s already Week 2 of the National Football League season?

After seven months of anticipation, Week 1 is now firmly in our rear-view mirror and it’s time to shift our focus to this NFC East prime-time showdown.

Week 1 was a struggle for the Washington Football Team and New York Giants, but things change fast in this league and a bounce-back win Thursday night could go a long way for either team.

New York Giants at Washington Football Team

Line: Washington -3.5

Total: 40.5

 

SOMETHING’S GOT TO GIVE

Daniel Jones has won just eight times in his 27 NFL starts but four of those have come against Washington.

In fact, the quarterback has never lost a game to Washington and is a perfect 2-0 with 564 passing yards, six touchdowns and zero turnovers in his two games at FedExField.

However, New York has dropped all five of their Thursday Night Football games since 2016 and is the only team without a Thursday night win over that span.

Jones wasn’t the problem for New York last week, passing for 267 yards and connecting with Sterling Shepard for a 37-yard touchdown.

But the running game was virtually nonexistent.

Jones led team with his 27 rushing yards on just six attempts, while Saquon Barkley ran for only 26 yards on 10 carries.

Barkley was making his return to the lineup after playing in just two games last season. The 24-year-old running back has struggled with injuries since 2019.

In his first 19 games in the league, Barkley rushed for 100-plus yards 10 times, since then he has eclipsed the 100-yard mark twice in 13 games.

The running back is listed as questionable for the game as he attempts to play for the second time in just five days coming off his recovery from a torn ACL.

Last week the Football Team held Austin Ekeler to 57 rushing yards on 15 attempts and limited the Chargers to just 90 yards on the ground as a team.

With Washington’s defence and Barkley playing on short rest, I like the running back to go under 40.5 rushing yards tonight.

 

THE TAYLOR HEINICKE TEAM

Remember Taylor Heinicke?

The dude who was running around like Superman against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round last year.

Well, he’s back.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was forced to exit early in Week 1 due to a hip injury that will keep him out long term, which once again brings Heinicke into the spotlight.

The quarterback looked solid last week, tossing for 122 yards, one touchdown and rushing for 17 yards on three attempts.

The story of the game last week for Washington was their ability to limit the Los Angeles Chargers to just 20 points.

Washington allowed 337 passing yards and the Chargers were able to move the ball at times, but the Football Team showed the ability to bend but not break on defence.

The Chargers found the red zone three times on Sunday and were held to a field goal on two of those occasions.

The Giants scored a touchdown on 46.34 per cent of their red zone trips last season, a number that ranked 31st in the league, beating out only the New York Jets (42.11).

All Heinicke has to do this week is manage the game and let his defence do most of the heavy lifting.

THE LINE:

The game opened with Washington as a four-point favourite and the total sitting at 42.0 points.

Those numbers have both dropped to Washington -3.5 and the total now resting at 40.5.

New York and Washington both were good against the spread last season going 9-7 in the regular season, while the Football Team improved to 10-7 if you include their playoff game against Tampa Bay.

I expect this to be a low-scoring game, and I would like Washington a lot more if I could get them at -3 instead of -3.5. But I’ll ride with them anyway.

I believe this Football Team defence will finally get the better of Jones, force a turnover or two and give Heinicke and the offence some short fields.

Lay the points.

Pick: WFT -3.5

Prop: Saquon Barkley Under 40.5 rushing yards