The New York Giants (8-6-1) will host the Indianapolis Colts (4-10-1) for a Week 17 matchup this Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Here are three reasons for optimism entering Sunday afternoon.
Win and advance
The Giants have something extra to play for on Sunday. If New York can defeat the Colts, they will secure a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
This was a Giants team that was predicted by many to finish last in the NFC East as this was a year that had a lot of off-season turnover with a new general manager and a whole new coaching staff.
This demonstrates how amazing a job Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll have done to turn this franchise around. Especially considering there have been a lot of injuries on this team and the Giants are also deprived of talent compared to other teams in the NFC.
This can be a great end to the amazing story that this team has had this season.
Backups
The Colts’ offense is a team of backups on Sunday as they are without their star running back Jonathan Taylor and will also be starting Nick Foles at quarterback.
Taylor’s backup, Deon Jackson, averages 3.4 yards per carry compared to the 4.5 yards per carry Taylor averaged.
Foles is also very debilitating for the Colts’ offense as they only scored three points with him starting last week. In the game, he only passed for 143 yards and threw three interceptions looking like a shell of his former self.
This is a game where the Giants’ defense can feast and demonstrate how it is one of the better groups in football. Turnovers will be a deciding factor in this match and having Indianolpolis with its backups will help New York win this battle.
Blood in the water
The Colts offensive line has looked abysmal. They allowed nine quarterback hits and seven sacks cutting off any chance the offense had to continue drives last week.
Wink Martindale has taken notice of this as he has acknowledged that there is “blood in the water.”
In the past few weeks, the Giants’ pass rush has come alive. This was best demonstrated in their loss to the Minnesota Vikings where they hit Kirk Cousins 11 times and sacked him four times.
This will be a great game for Azeez Ojulari (if he plays) and Kayvon Thibodeaux to feast and get ready to perform in a possible playoff push.
