What to Watch For When the Patriots Face the Giants

On second down linebacker Jasper Brinkley caught up to Brady on a blitz and forced a fumble, which defensive lineman Marcus Kuhn recovered for the Giants, setting them up at the New England 31-yard line.

“Honestly you could look across the board and try and find a weakness and your guess is as good as mine”, Vereen said. All the way around, they’re strong. And while we missed on JPP getting a few sacks a week ago, he was extremely active and made a few plays that changed the outcome of the game. DE Chandler Jones leads National Football League with 9 1/2 sacks. (New Yorkers point to a rabid pass rush and the QB’s epic cool in big spots.) Over the last 15 years, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have been wizards at working a team’s weakness, except when they play Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin.

Of course, there’s plenty of reason for New England to be confident.

That spoiled the Patriots’ chances for the NFL’s first 19-0 season.

NOTES: Giants starting left guard Justin Pugh returned to practice Thursday after missing a day because of dehydration…. They probably will return after the bye week….

“We’re going up against the best team we’ve played so far this season, obviously undefeated”, he said. As for option three, I am just not the biggest fan of zone coverage.

“I think it’s different teams from those games and over the past eight years, we’ve played them four times, a lot of new faces on their team and our team”, Manning said.

The Giants are 6-1 ATS in their last seven games against New England. Option one is a risky option, but we all know Butler would love the challenge. Ironically, they finished their 27-10 win over the Washington Redskins with Michael Williams, a tight end, playing right tackle, according to Sports Illustrated. It’s just poor ball handling by the offensive team.

In the days prior to this game I felt very confident that the Giants would win, the complete opposite of how I felt four years before. Brady is facing a defense that is asking him to throw for 300 yards and he has already done it five times this season. It’s not the same team this season.

So the Giants have to ask themselves: who is more unsafe, Gronkowski or Blount?

Beckham hasn’t had a spectacular catch this season to rival his peerless one-hander last season against Dallas – who has? – but he is one of the league’s most productive and unsafe receivers. That capped a 10-play, 57-yard New England drive that took 5:28 off the clock.

Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said the one thing that would help defensive line is for the secondary to do a good job covering the Patriots receivers.

Unfortunately for Big Blue, they’ve had next to no rush to speak of this season.

But what about the history between these two teams? No individual back has gained more than 63 yards in a game, Rashad Jennings vs. Philadelphia on October 19. It puts pressure on Manning to hit passes. Coughlin said he “appreciated the toughness” that Edelman brings to the game and wishes that the wideout was catching passes from Eli Manning instead of Tom Brady.