Prophet’s Pulpit

Giants vs Cardinals- Preview and Prediction

Written by: Tony “The Prophet” Yantosca

The Giants are coming off their biggest victory probably since Super Bowl 46. That makes four wins in a row after a dismal start of 1-7. The Giants are looking to win the division and win at least 3 of the 4 last games. 

The Giants and Cardinals used tom play every year. The Giants have a big lead in the series 80-45-2. The Giants have lost the last 3 in the series and have not won vs the Cardinals since 2011.It took a 29-yard catch from Eli by Hakeem Nicks to get the go-ahead touchdown with less than 3 minutes left in that 2011 contest. 

These teams played last year. All I can remember that 11 minutes into the game, the Giants were down 14-0. Edmunds ran the first 2 touchdowns in. I was ticked because I benched him because Drake was supposed to play and he played 1 play and was never seen again. Needless to say, I lost in fantasy in thatleague that week. I also remember the Jones turnovers. He had an interception early and 3 fumbles of which 2 were lost. #Danny Turnover has been better his last 3 games with the turnovers. We will have to see if he can play. He is a game time decision.

There is no secret what the Giants want to do when they have the ball. They will run and may be facing a stacked box especially if McCoy is the quarterback. The Giants ran for 190 yards last week making it the 7th week in a row that the Giantsran for over 100 yards. The Gmen have been deploying 12 and 13 personnel, 2 and 3 tight ends. This is to help in the blocking game. 

Mc Coy only threw for 105 yards on 22 attempts last week vs the Seahawks. Jones, if he is back, has only thrown for 212 yards/game. This is bottom 10 in the league. The Giants only throw for 192 yards/game while the Cardinals are 8th vs the pass, 219 yards/game. The Giants had 31 rushing attempts. Gallman had 16 and touchdown vulture, Alfred Morris, had 8. The Cardinals are middle the pack vs the run at number 16. 

The Giants will have to have someone in the receiving corpsstep up to catch a few deeper passes to get the defenders away from the line of scrimmage. Patrick Peterson will probably cover Slayton most of the time. He will probably be in the Witness Protection Program again this week with Peterson. Against Seattle he only caught 1 pass for 14 yards. It will be up to Shepard to come up with plays to move the chains. He only made 1 catch for 22 yards on 6 targets. McCoy was challenged when he had to make deeper throws last week. Engram will also be key, as he will have to watch Budda Baker lurking over the middle. Engram was the main target last week with 8 targets with 4 catches for only 32 yards. Obviously with Jones the pass yards will be better but if he plays he will throw for less than 200 yards. 

When the Cardinals have the ball, their key is Kyler Murray. I think he is still hurt from the shoulder injury he sustained in week 11. He was running for 67 yards/game average in the first9 games. He has only averaged 20 yards the last 3 games. His running is the straw that turns this offense on. The Giants are very good vs the run. They are currently 4th only giving up 97 yards/game. The Giants are 19th vs the pass and this is where the Cardinals will try to move the ball. Everybody knows their main weapon, Deandre Hopkins. He will see coverage from Bradberry, who has been excellent and Pro Bowl worthy.  Last week, stud deep ball threat Metcalf did have 5 catches for 80 yards, but he had no touchdowns and he did not change the game. I would double Hopkins and let them beat me with someone else like Kirk, Isabella and the ageless one Fitzgerald, who I think this year is his last season. Kingsbury does not use the tight end much. Their main tight end, Arnold, has 20 catches(less than 2/week, but he did have 2 of his 3 touchdowns for the year last week vs the Rams), Daniels has 6 and Maxx Williamshas 5 for the year.

The Giants defense has been stepping up during this winning streak. Last week vs the Seahawks the defense had their best game of the season holding down a high-flying offense that is used to scoring 30 points/game. Here is the stat line from lastweek: 5 sacks for 47 yards vs the elusive Wilson, 4 tackles for loss, 10 quarterback hits, 7 passes defended, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumbled recovered and 1 interception. Leonard Williams was the defensive player of the week. He had 2.5 sacks, 5 quarterbackhits, 2 tackles form loss on his 2 tackles and 1 assisted tackle. I thought his signing was one of the worst in the Gettleman era. However, he has improved with good coaching from Graham and Judge. What a surprise! The Jets could not get the best out of him with their inferior coaching. He was a 6th overall pick. In 12 games this year he has 8.5 sacks. In his previous 5 years he has only 17.5 sacks.

There are two issues to worry about for the Giants. Gano is out on Covid and he has been an automatic kicker even on the 50-yard kicks, and tackling machine Blake Martinez is questionable to play. You don’t want to lose on a missed makeable field goal. Giants for some reason the past 3+ years have been worse at home.

Yes However, there are 3 reasons I am picking the Giants in this game. Their defense has been dominating, Kyler Murray has not been the same since he got hit on the shoulder 3 games ago, and the Giants can dominate the time of possession with the run game with 7 straight 100-yard games. They have gotten the 100-yard games vs some really good run defenses like the Washington Team twice, Eagles twice, Buccaneers, #1 rush defense, and Seahawks, 190 yards vs the #4 rush defense. That streak has not been done by the Giants since 2010. This is a close game, I am calling this one Giants 24 and the Cardinals, 21. The Cardinals if not for the miracle “Hail Murray” would have lost 5 in a row coming into this game and right now the Giants are playing better.