Sportsbooks Install Giants As Home Dogs Against The Commanders

If you had “the Giants and Commanders will be playing in a wildly important December game” on your bingo card, congratulations, because no one saw this coming.

Furthermore, if you said this wildly important game would be between the same two teams who are currently in last and third place in the four-team NFC East, you probably would’ve been put under psychological evaluation.

And yet, here we are, with the third-place, 7-4 Giants taking on the last-place, 7-5 Commanders at 1 p.m. Sunday at MetLife Stadium. And while neither team is (probably) going to catch the Eagles or Cowboys, both are right in the thick of the playoff race. Basically, unless some patented NFL nonsense takes place, it would appear two of the Giants, Commanders, and Seahawks (6-5) are going to make the playoffs. 

Clearly, this is a big game. 

Sportsbooks give advantage to D.C.

Sportsbooks have, once again, failed to respect the Giants, despite their being the home team here. The Commanders are 2.5-point favorites, with the best odds on either side offered at -107 at PointsBet.

On the moneyline, the best place for Giants bettors to go is BetRivers, where they are +118 underdogs. Furthermore, the sportsbooks expect a slog, with the point total set at over 40 at -105 at DraftKings and under 40.5 at -110 at BetMGM, bet365, and others.

The sportsbooks expect the Giants to try and win with what’s gotten the team to where it is so far: a heavy dose of Saquon Barkley. His rushing attempt over/under is set at 18.5, with the over at -115 at DraftKings. But they’re not entirely convinced it’s going to work, with Barkley’s yardage prop set at a pedestrian 71.5 at bet365. A better bet might be Daniel Jones at 33.5 rushing yards, with the over at -110 at DraftKings.

Some other notable props heading into Sunday include:

• Barkley over 3.5 receptions at +120 at bet365 and Darius Slayton with the same reception total, but at -115. Barkley has only gone over once in his last four games, while Slayton has topped that total twice in his last four.
• First half total, under 12.5 at +400 at PointsBet. Neither offense is particularly talented – the Giants are 16th and the Commanders 26th by Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric. Their defenses aren’t much better, for the record – the Commanders are 11th, the Giants 26th. Point being is this game could be a lot of three and outs to start. Might be worth a sprinkle.

And lastly …

• Daniel Bellinger is expected back this week after his scary eye injury, and is +520 for an anytime touchdown at the SuperBook. Might make for a nice story, right?

Photo: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY