Just like the Yankees, the New York Giants (5-2) are on the road against a Philadelphia team, as they take on the Philadelphia Eagles (4-2) Sunday.  This should be a good match-up, as it is two good teams with two good quarterbacks facing off.  Eli Manning needs to play much better than he did last week, as he threw three interceptions in their loss to Arizona.  Philly has a strong defense, but they have been inconsistent at times so Eli could make some big plays down the field, he just needs to make sure he takes care of the ball.  Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw should be effective against the Eagles’ run-defense that gives up 97 rushing yards per game.

The Giants defense needs to try and stop the Donovan McNabb-DeSean Jackson combo.  Johnson is battling a foot injury, but it doesn’t look like it will slow him down too much as he has practiced fully the last two days.  He has 21 catches for 423 yards this season, which is a 20 yard average, so he is a big play receiver.  If they can limit the big plays, then they should be able to win the game, especially since the Eagles running game has been struggling lately.  This will be a close game, but I think the Giants will pull out a late win.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  New York Giants 30, Philadelphia Eagles 28

The New York Giants (5-2) played terrible football in this game against the Arizona Cardinals (4-2).  Eli Manning looked rattled by the uncharacteristically high pressuring Cardinals defense.  Known for their offense, the Cardinals defense got the win for the Cardinals in this one.  Or, the Giants gave this one away to the Cardinals , as they had four turnovers and punter Jeff Feagles had a terrible game.  Feagles punted the ball seven times, often trying to angle it down the sideline, but failed almost every time.  He average 34 yards per punt and gave the Cardinals great field position.  Eli Manning tried forcing passes into tight spots, and had his passes deflected often.  He ended up with three interceptions and the Giants turned the ball over four times.  Manning finished with one touchdown and three interceptions, with 243 yards on 19/37 attempts.  Whenever you turn the ball over four times you are probably not going to win, as Giants head coach Tom Coughlin bluntly pointed out after the loss.

The Giants could have been blown out in this one, but the Cardinals offense wasn’t very sharp either.   Kurt Warner threw an interception and only completed 20/36 passes.  He was able to find Larry Fitzgerald for some big plays though.  The Giants did not do very well containing Fitzgerald, who finished with six catches for 83 yards.  The Giants also did not do a good job stopping the Cardinals running game.  The Cardinals running game is not very strong, and the Giants are supposed to have a strong run-defense, so they should have been able to shut down Beanie Wells.  Wells got 67 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries (4.8 average).  This was a very poor performance from the Giants, and had they took care of the ball better they would have won.  They are up 1/2 game over a hot Dallas Cowboys team in the NFC East, and have another tough opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles next game on the road.

The New York Giants (5-1) are coming off their worst game of the year and are trying to bounce back this week against the Arizona Cardinals (3-2) at home Sunday.  The Giants, who have one of the best defenses in the league, gave up 368 passing yards and four touchdowns to Drew Brees last week.  The are facing another talented quarterback with Kurt Warner and he has one of the best targets to throw to in Larry Fitzgerald.  The Giants need a much better effort from their pass-defense in this game and they say they are going to blitz a lot more than they did last week.  If their blitz is not effective, Warner will eat up the secondary.

The Cardinals don’t have much of a running game, so the Giants can key in on stopping Warner and the passing game.  I’m expecting Eli Manning to have a much better game this week.  He has been hurting from plantar fasciitis, but another week has passed for it to heal so I think he will have a much better game than the previous two.  The Cardinals give up 265 passing yards per game too, so Eli should not have a problem with their secondary.  These are two very good offenses going in this matchup, but with the Giants having the better defense I think they will win a close, hard fought game.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Arizona Cardinals 30, New York Giants 35

The Giants really never had a chance in this game as the Saints jumped them from the opening whistle.  Eli Manning played his worst game of the season yesterday as he completed 14 of 31 passes for 178 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 INT.  He also lost a fumble before exiting this game for David Carr.  David Carr was very effective in garbage time completing 4 of 5 passes for 72 yards with 1 TD  pass.  The Giants were taken out of the gameplan early in this game and that’s why Ahmad Bradshaw only carried the ball 10 times for 48 yards (4.8 ypc) and a TD.  Brandon Jacobs only had 33 rushing yards on 7 carries (4.7 ypc) in this game for the Giants as they were too far behind in this game to run the ball.  Rookie WR Hakeem Nicks led the way for the Giants in the passing game yesterday with 5 grabs for 114 yards (22.8 avg) with a TD.  Mario Manningham pitched in with 4 grabs for 50 yards (12.5 avg) and a TD.  The Giants finished up with 325 total yards on offense in this game (84 rushing, 241 passing) despite only having possession of the ball for 23:53.

The defense was awful in this game for the Giants as they couldn’t stop either the run or the pass.  Safety C.C. Brown led the way for the Giants on defense in this game with 13 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss and 2 passes defensed.  Linebacker Chase Blackburn pitched in with 11 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for a loss and a QB hit.  The Saints finished up with 493 total yards of offense (133 rushing, 360 passing) in this game.  The Giants are now 5-1 on the season but still atop of the NFC East.

Both of these teams are undefeated coming into this game as the Giants are 5-0 while the Saints are 4-0.  These teams are very similar in style so this should be a great game to watch on Sunday.  Eli Manning didn’t finish what he started against the Raiders last Sunday as he sat out the 2nd half to rest his injured foot.  They will likely need him to play the whole game on Sunday if the Giants are to win this game.  The Saints are only allowing 83.3 yards rushing per game and 3.7 yards per carry but they have not played a team with near the caliber of running game that will face them on Sunday.  Brandon Jacobs (355 yards rushing) and Ahmad Bradshaw (375 yards rushing) will be banging away against the Saints’ D who better bring their A-game.  The Saints will be blitzing a lot in this game as they have 10 sacks this season but Giants’ QBs have only been sacked 4 times this season.  If the Saints can’t get to Manning they will be in some trouble as he has three quality WRs in Steve Smith, Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks.  The Saints’ D has 10 interceptions already this season and opposing QBs have a 51.3 Rating!

The Saints have moved away from just letting Drew Brees throw all of the time.  They actually look a lot like the Giants on offense.  The Giants are allowing 105.8 yards rushing per game and 4.8 yards per carry so look for the Saints to attack them on the ground with Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell and Reggie Bush.  If the Saints can get a running game going that will slow the Giants’ pass rush a bit as they have 14 sacks already this year.  The Saints’ O-Line has been fantastic this season as they only have given up 4 sacks so it will be interesting to see if the Giants will get near Drew Brees.  If he has time to throw the ball WRs Devery Henderson and Marques Colston could get deep.  But the matchup to really watch is TE Jeremy Shockey against his old team.

PREDICTION:  SAINTS 24, GIANTS 20