The New York Giants and the Detroit Lions both had anemic offenses last week, combining for just 20 points in their losses. There’s an entire week for these teams to talk about improvements, though, and each are also hoping they could take advantage of the other’s poor defense. The Giants are +500 to win the NFC East, while the Lions are +700 to top the NFC North.
The Saquon Barkley era in New York has begun. The second-overall pick in this year’s draft made his NFL debut last Thursday in a 20-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The former Penn State running back finished with 43 rushing yards in four carries, though, the bulk of that production came during an amazing 39-yard run. Nevertheless, the Giants pounded out 134 yards on the ground, a production that bodes them well for Friday’s meeting with the Lions’ defense that allowed 147 rushing yards to Oakland in Week 1 of the preseason. For what it’s worth, Eli Manning, who did not appear in any preseason opener in each of the last two seasons, did see action against the Browns, completing four of seven passes for 26 yards. Still, expect Davis Webb to take over the quarterbacking duties most of the time in the preseason moving forward. Davis, however, has to improve his accuracy after going just 9-of-22 for 70 yards against the Browns. The Giants’ secondary also need to tighten up their unit, which was made obvious by Cleveland’s dizzying 322 passing yards.
Betting on the Detroit Lions
As mentioned earlier, the Lions’ run defense underwhelmed against the Raiders in last Friday’s 16-10 loss to the Raiders. Perhaps even more frustrating was the lack of pressure by Detroit on Oakland’s passing game. The Lions were one of the worst pass rushing teams last season with just 35 sacks last season. Although Ziggy Ansah did not play against the Raiders, the Lions’ inability to generate record a sack just shows how lacking Detroit’s pass rush remains. On offense, rookie running back Kerryon Johnson looked fine in his debut, though, he was facing a bunch of third and fourth stringers. He rushed four times and garnered 33 rushing yards. With the news of Redskins rookie tailback Derrius Guice getting ruled out of the entire 2018 season because of an ACL injury he sustained last week against the New England Patriots, the Lions might be more careful in deploying Johnson on Friday. In that case, look for Zach Zenner to see more snaps.
