The New York Giants host the Washington Commanders tonight in an all NFC East Division matchup with the first place team at home.
That’s right, the Giants lead the NFC East Division, if they end the season ahead it will be their first division title since 2011. That year, the Giants went on to down the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. Since that season this division has been pretty much dominated each year by either the Dallas Cowboys or Philadelphia Eagles, with the Washington team popping up for three division titles over the past 16 seasons. The last time the Washington franchise won the NFC East was 2020, a year in which their 7-9 record was good enough to capture the title while the rest of the grouping had worse losing records.
Tonight, the Giants enter play with a two game lead over second place Dallas, and that includes being three up in the loss column over the Cowboys. The Giants have already had their bye week while the Cowboys have not, and New York also has a tie while suffering only two losses. That tie, by the way, was against the same team New York hosts tonight. In that game, the Commanders were in field goal range as time clicked off the overtime period when Jaylen Daniels made one of the most boneheaded plays of the season. He allowed himself to be sacked at the 24-yard-line as time ran out.
After that game, the Giants, who had lost their starting quarterback in second week action, Jaxson Dart, made a trade with the Minnesota Vikings to acquire J.J. McCarthy. Like in Minnesota, the team that drafted him in the first round a few years ago, McCarthy has had some highlight moments for the Giants but has also forced head coach John Harbaugh to replace him at times with Jameis Winston.
You would think that with all those moving parts the Giants would be having a typical bad season … but their first place standing is a full three games ahead of the team they host tonight. While New York has only outscored their opponents on the season by 10 points, they have parlayed that into five wins against only two losses. In the entire NFC, only the San Francisco 49ers and nearly all the NFC North Division teams have a better record.
So, take the Giants tonight and lay the two-point spread?