Washington Football Team will host the New York Giants on Thursday, September 17, at FedEx Field, in their second fixture of the NFL 2021/22 season. These two rival teams last met in November 2020, when Giants won 23-20, adding their second victory on the year, after edging past WFT a month prior with 20-19.
Washington Football Team vs New York Giants
When: Thursday, September 17 – 20:20 EDT
Where: FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland
Weather: Cloudy, 22°C
Both teams lost their opening games, and they can’t afford to drop another. The reason is that the Giants and the WFT are divisional rivals in NFC East, together with the raging Philadelphia Eagles and improving Dallas Cowboys. So by going 0-2, the chances of winning the division would drop significantly for the losing team.
Furthermore, the Wild Card entry to the Playoffs would also become very distant. The thing is that the teams with a 0-2 start rarely make it to the postseason, one way or the other. In fact, none of the 11 teams did it last year.
However, history taught us that plenty of teams that go 1-1 end up in the postseason. The best example is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 1-1 in 2020; and won the Super Bowl LV.
No Fitzpatrick, No Problem
The WFT will be without their starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who’ll, most likely, miss the next 6-8 weeks with a hip injury. He suffered the injury in Week 1 against the Los Angeles Chargers, which his team ended up losing 20-16.
The loss, however, wasn’t the fault of Fitzpatrick’s replacement Taylor Heinicke. In fact, the backup QB had a pretty decent game. He played almost three quarters of that game, going 11/15 for 122 yards and one touchdown.
He might not be Ron Rivera’s first choice (there are rumours the head coach wants to sign Cam Newton), but this guy definitely knows how to play big games. Last season, for example – in WFT’s Wild Card game against the Bucs – Heinicke went 26/44, passing for 306 yards, with one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown.
Can Daniel Jones Step Up?
The New York Giants are putting a lot of hope on their third-year quarterback Daniel Jones. The guy had a fantastic season as a rookie, but his form dipped slightly a year later. Now, in his third NFL season, Jones is expected to shine.
Unfortunately, he didn’t do so in Week 1 of the 2021/22 NFL season. His team lost 27-13 to the Denver Broncos at home, with Jones throwing 22/37 for 267 yards and one touchdown pass. He also made one rushing touchdown in that game.
Sure, he could’ve done slightly better, but it’s not all his fault. His teammates are also to blame. Actually, Jones’ most significant problem in 2021 might be his offensive line, which just doesn’t seem good enough.
They weren’t good enough to break Denver and probably won’t be able to do much against Washington either.
New York Giants vs Washington Football Team Betting Pick
We shouldn’t see too many points in this game, but the real question is who will win? The Giants won this match twice in 2020, albeit it was mostly WFT underperforming rather than the Giants showing anything spectacular.
WTF turned the ball over seven times and were trailing 10-0 at the end of the first quarter in both of last season’s meetings. Still, they bounced back and lost the games with a combined total of four points. It might be interesting to know that WTF averaged 5.0 allowed points yet doubled that figure in their two bouts with Giants.
As long as WFT can avoid making too many mistakes, they should make it past Giants and help them to their fifth consecutive 0-2 start to the season – with or without Fitzpatrick on board. Trust the hosts to cover the spread!
Prediction: Washington Football Team (-3.5) – 1.95 at Sportmarket
