The New York Giants will head on the road in Week 9 to face the Las Vegas Raiders.
In a week where both teams have seen significant changes that could affect the game, the Raiders remain slight favorites over Big Blue.
The Giants will get quarterback Daniel Jones back this week after being fearful of passing the ball in the second half of last week’s game with Tommy DeVito at the helm.
The Giants will hope to take advantage of all the changes going on with the Raiders in a short week.
Here are three reasons for optimism ahead of Sunday’s clash.
Lack of preparation time for Raiders' new staff
Coming off their Week 8 loss to the New York Jets, the Giants knew their Week 9 opponent would be playing on a short week with the Raiders playing on Monday Night Football.
What nobody saw coming was that the Raiders would fire their head coach, Josh McDaniels, and offensive coordinator, Mick Lombardi. As if that wasn’t enough change, the Raiders also benched quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in favor of rookie Aidan O’Connell.
The Giants will instead face off against Antonio Pierce, a key player from their Super Bowl XLII roster. Pierce is, of course, serving as the Raiders interim head coach.
Given the short week and all the changes the Raiders went through this week, they have had little time to prepare for the Week 9 game.
Daniel Jones returns
The Giants have been without their starting quarterback for three straight games. Tyrod Taylor played well in his place.
However, many have argued that the Giants may have won both their Week 6 matchup against the Buffalo Bills and the Week 8 matchup against the Jets if Daniel Jones had played. Given how close both of those matchups were, DJ putting the Giants over the top in both those matchups was not out of the realm of possibility.
Jones’ return on Sunday will also mark the first time he and running back Saquon Barkley are on the field together since Week 2 when Jones and the Giants had their historic comeback performance against the Arizona Cardinals.
The combo of Jones and Barkley should give the Giants a more formidable game plan heading into Sunday.
Sack and turnover opportunities for the Giants
The Raiders rank 30th in the league averaging two giveaways per game.
Meanwhile, the Giants have forced at least one turnover in the last four games and multiple turnovers in three of those four contests.
The Giants’ defense has been improving every week for the last four weeks and that will likely continue this week.
Aidan O’Connell has one start on the year and in that game, he was sacked seven times.
You can bet that Wink Martindale will have the defense ready to take advantage of any opportunities that they are presented with.
Follow the Giants Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Podcasts
