One of the things to do OBJECTIVELY when ascertaining what kind of record your team will have in the coming season is to look at your team’s OVER/UNDER + all the oppositing teams’ OVER/UNDER.
Giants 10 wins over/under
The way the objective system works is that you add 1.5 games to whoever is playing at home and whoever has the higher total wins the game. As an example, when they play WASH at home, the Giants have 10 + 1.5 = 11.5, which is > than Washington’s 8 total wins this season, hence a win.
OPPONENT O/U W/L
WASH 8 W
at DAL 9 L
at TB 6.5 W
at KC 6 W
OAK 5.5 W
at NO 9 L
AZ 8.5 W
at PHL 9.5 L
SD 10 W
ATL 8.5 W
at DEN 6.5 W
DAL 9 W
PHL 9.5 W
at WASH 8 W
CAR 8.5 W
at MIN 9.5 L
Using this metric, the Giants collect 12 wins, in part because they are playing TB, KC, DEN and WASH on the road, and they do not lose a game at home. Is that realistic? We know that Eli is not necessarily a force at home, so perhaps he loses one in December that the system is inking a win for, making the team go 11-5. Considering Las Vegas has them winning 10 games, 11-5 is plausible. So this objective system is not bad in getting to a ballpark estimate.
At this point making a prediction on the number of games the Giants will win this year is full of too many question marks. We simply do not know about the health and effectiveness of their two most important offseason acquisitions: Boley and Canty. Remember that Reese saw a need to open up the wallet and go after his first two high profile free agents in 3 years as GM. That should tell you how important these two players are in addressing needs he felt the Giants had this offseason.
THESE TWO MEN HAVE YET TO PLAY A SINGLE DOWN FOR THE GIANTS!
Anyone that can tell us unequivocally how the gmen will do this season is guessing about the impact these guys make. Did these guys heal? If so, do they gel with the defense? When do they gel? If anyone knows the answer to these questions, pls do share. We can see scenarios where the Giants are anywhere from 9-7 to 13-3. Wonder has them subjectively at 11-5 or 12-4. As was mentioned earlier in the week, Week 6 vs the Saints is the first test, and you can see how the numbers also verify that… the Saints are 9 +1.5 = 10.5 which gives them a win ‘objectively’ over the Giants. We will learn about Boley and Canty in the first 5 weeks, so Week 6 is the first big test. Of course we will learn plenty about the team vs their 2 divisional rivals too, but those datapoints will not mean as much because those 2 players will not be making an impact. (Boley does not even dress in W1.)
Summary: 11-5 or 12-4 is plausible, but Canty and Boley will determine a lot more as the season unfolds.
Extras:
(1) Terrell Thomas to start on Sunday. Were you surprised???
(2) “Loaded box” “opportunity” “GOOD”, didn’t we just say this?!
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