Sunday Night Football: Cards visit Giants

In my opinion, last year, I thought the Giants were going to host the Cardinals for the NFC Championship game. Unfortunately, the Giants did not take care of their business. On Sunday, the Giants host the NFC defending Champions (8:30 ET, NBC). The Cardinals come into town with a 3-2 record. Right now, they are tied with San Francisco for first place in the NFC West. Historically, the Cardinals are a poor road team. Since 2007, with Ken Whisenhunt as the head coach, the Cardinals have posted the following won/loss road records.

2008: 3-5
2007: 2-6

This year, the Cardinals have won both of their road victories. Before a Cardinals fan gets excited, the Cards have defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams have a combined record of 5-7. Nevertheless, this will be the Cardinals first road test of the 2009 campaign.

On the other hand, the Giants are playing just their third home game of the season. After the beating they took by New Orleans, I can only hope the Giants play inspired football on Sunday night. I think they need to be physical with the Cardinals. They cannot have a repeat of last week. Like Brees, Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner could pick apart the Giants defensive backfield. Therefore, the most important part of this game is pressure. The Giants defensive line must put tremendous pressure on Warner. In fact, Warner has a history of being careless with the football. Since 1999, his first year in the NFL, Warner has coughed up the ball an astonishing 94 times. It is my opinion, the Giants defense needs to create turnovers and make plays. This week, I can only hope Giants defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan has a smarter game plan. If we lose this game because of poor defense play, the press is going to be all over Sheridan. Was he the right guy for the job? Before Steve Spagnuolo, Coughlin had the inept Tim Lewis as his defensive coordinator. After a disappointing 2006 season, the Giants had 25th ranked defense in the NFL. As a result, on January 11, 2007, the Giants fired Lewis.

On offense, the Giants face the number one ranked defense against the run. That is right! The Cardinals are allowing a stingy 59.6 rushing yards per game. Conversely, their pass defense is atrocious. They are ranked 31st in the league. They are allowing an average of 265.2 yards per game. So what does this mean? Do the Giants air it out? I think the Giants must be balanced. I think they are most successful when the mix the run and the pass.

What to expect?

I think the Giants win this game. I think Domenik Hixon will have a big night returning the football. I also think Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw will have a very good game. And Giants RB Brandon Jacobs will get back into his regular routine. I think Jacobs is going to gain over 100 yards. For the Cardinals, even though wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin get a lot of media attention, I like WR Steve Breaston. I think he will have the best game of all three wide outs.

The Cardinals played a very good game against the Texans. Although this was a home game, with less than a minute to play, the Cardinals defense had a goal line stand to preserve a victory.