Betting Guide to the Wembley Game - Pt II: NY Giants on the handicap...

NFL / Andy Richmond / 25 October 2007 / Leave a Comment

NFL fanatic Andy Richmond guides us through his top tips for Sunday's match

So not much hope for the Dolphins with the ball, but can they keep it close and stop the Giants when they have the ball? Well, there was a ray of hope last week when Miami held the pass-happy Patriots to only 84 rushing yards, but that was just a glimmer as otherwise the Miami "D" has been woeful allowing 10 rushing touchdowns so far this season.

Balance sums up the Giant offence with the running game being much enhanced with the return of running back Brandon Jacobs - 293 yards rushing in his last three games; he's ably assisted by Derrick Ward and Reuben Droughns. If these three can establish the running game, that should be enough for Giant QB Eli Manning to unleash his potent receiving core, led by Plexico Burress who despite hardly training in the week has produced some stellar numbers this year. That spells bad news for the Miami defence shorn of another player this week when they lost safety Renaldo Hill, also with a season ending knee injury.

With those facts in mind I headed straight for the player performance markets for the Giants but while I could play positively on all three, it's the word I used earlier that puts me off from rowing in with any particular Giant player - balance.

With this offence there are so many weapons I'm not so sure that they are going to concentrate on one player and feel that it's more of a team effort, so I'll pass on the Jacobs rushing yards, Manning passing yards or the Burress receiving yards and use the opinion that those three gentleman and their colleagues will make the necessary contribution to the Giants points total to see it pass the 28.5 mark it is set at - 1.84 is available currently.

I'll ask for a little more and try and back around the 1.95 mark to see the Giants top that mark. Further confidence added by the fact that they have outscored their opposition by 70 points in the last 5 games and the aggressive defence that they play will have opportunities to put points on the board also.

So try as I might I really can't make much of a case for anything but a resounding Giants win even after a detailed look behind the numbers and my final bet would be to take the Giants giving up 9.5 points on the main handicap market - I'll be a backer there at around the 1.94 mark to send the Dolphins to 0-8 and staring down the barrel of a season without a win.

The only comfort I can offer the Dolphins is a quote from my old friend William Shakespeare "Have nothing, nothing can he lose". Enjoy the game!!.