Phil Simms, Warren Sapp and Cris Collinsworth discussed the Giants-Panthers game. Sapp is taking the Panthers, while Simms and Collinworth are taking the Giants.
Sapp: “The Carolina running game is built on them being tough. The Giants are just playing tough. Carolina wins this game.”
Simms: “(The Giants) are the hardest team to pick this year. But they were physical on Monday night and I think that will be enough to beat Carolina.”
Collinsworth: “Who is playing better than Eli Manning right now? He’s hot… Their offensive and defensive lines had to take over. There are so many injuries in the secondary for the Giants. This was an offensive line that really didn’t play that way early on… Maybe they’re waking up.”
You can get some interesting perspective from these guys. They have to focus on the entire NFL, not the Giants. So when they remark and all concur on how difficult it is to figure out the Giants, that should tell you something. They do not pick vs the spread, they pick for outright winners. So we went back and counted the number of games in the first 15 weeks where the Giants won as an underdog or lost as a favorite.
Won as an underdog: at Dallas
Lost as a favorite: Cardinals, at Eagles, Chargers, Falcons, at Broncos, Eagles
So 7 out of 14 times, or 50% of the Giants games the favorite has lost OUTRIGHT. The reason why the 3 of them are complaining about the Giants is that the favorite is supposed to win the game about 66% of the time, statistically speaking. So when the Giants are involved in games this season where form is only holding 50% of the time, it makes their job of picking outrights harder.
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