Pro Football Picks: New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks

New York Giants at Seattle Seahawks
Sunday, 11/7/2010, 4:05 PM EST, TV: FOX
Opening Point Spread: New York -5
Current Betting Line: New York -7
Opening Total: 40.5
Current Total: 40.5
Current Moneyline: New York -320 / Seattle +270

New York Giants QB Eli Manning must protect the football in order to cover a seven-point spread on the road at Seattle

New York has won four straight to take over the top spot in the NFC East and defeated Dallas 41-35 in its last game before enjoying a bye week. The Giants haven’t been very successful when playing with rest, going 6-15 the following week, including an even 3-3 under head coach Tom Coughlin. “Well, that’s always the challenge, not just to come back where you were, but to come back and escalate the quality of your performance,” said Coughlin. Despite facing a team without its starting quarterback, the squad knows that it must deal with the sound of Qwest Field. Since 2005, opposing teams have averaged almost three false starts a game at the venue. When New York played there in 2005, the Giants were flagged for 10 false start penalties. The team is 10-5 ATS after two or more consecutive wins and is listed as a solid road favorite on the NFL lines page.

The Giants haven’t won in Seattle since 1981, losing games there in 1986, 1995, 2005 and 2006, with the first two in the Kingdome, the latter at Qwest. New York knows its in for a fight against a team that currently leads the NFC West with a 4-3 record. “This team leads their division, they have a tremendous amount at stake,” Coughlin commented. “They play exception football at home.” The squad is 3-2 against starting quarterbacks making their first start since 1990, facing Charlie Whitehurst, who completed 46 passes for 635 yards during the preseason. One other concern in their preparation is special teams and stopping Leon Washington, who leads the NFL with a 33.7-yard kickoff return average.

Seattle will need every bit of its home-field advantage to remain competitive in this contest after dropping a 33-3 contest in Oakland last week. The Seahawks lost five starters to injury last week, including signal-caller Matt Hasselbeck, who is out after suffering a concussion. “He needs another week to get right,” said head coach Pete Carroll. “He’s gone through all the batter of testing and we need to do this to protect him.” If the game remains close, kicker Olindo Mare will need to bounce back from missing two field goals for the first time in over a year. He came into last week’s contest with a team record 30 straight field goals made. Seattle is 9-17 ATS as an underdog and 0-4 ATS versus NFC East opponents.

The Seahawks will need a top performance from its defense and force turnovers to be in position to pull off the upset in the fourth quarter. Seattle has a plus-4 turnover ration at home and has relied on amazing special teams’ play to compile a 3-0 record at home. New York quarterback Eli Manning will give them some opportunities to make a big play, as he’s thrown 11 interceptions. Free safety Earl Thomas will likely need to make those plays and is an early candidate for defensive rookie of the year with four interceptions.