Giants vs. Cardinals NFL Week 2: New York unbeaten against the spread after loss under Brian Daboll
One can often determine how good an #NFL head coach is by how his team plays after a loss. If that is this the sole criteria, the best coach in the league currently is the New York Giants’ Brian Daboll as Big Blue is 7-0 against the spread after a regular-season loss in his 18-game tenure. Decent chance that gets to 8-0 Sunday as #NYGiants visit likely the worst team in the NFL in the Arizona Cardinals, who are +5.5.
Optimism was crazy high for the Giants entering this year after surprisingly reaching the playoffs last season and even winning a game at Minnesota before running into the Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional Round. Daboll was deservedly named NFL Coach of the Year, his first season as a head coach both with the Giants and in the NFL.
However, New York looked about as bad as possible in Week 1 this year, getting slaughtered 40-0 on its own field by Dallas. Noah Igbinoghene returned a blocked field goal 58 yards for a touchdown on the opening series and the game got out of hand quickly. It was the biggest shutout win/loss in the history of the rivalry and the Giants’ worst season-opening loss in franchise history.
QB Daniel Jones got his big extension in the offseason but was an ugly 15 for 28 for 104 yards with two picks while taking seven sacks against perhaps the NFL’s top defense. Even start Cowboys defender Micah Parsons ripped the Giants for letting Jones take such a beating as he was pressured on 55% of his 42 dropbacks.
"It's called protecting your guy -- something I thought the Giants should have done," Parsons said Tuesday on his "The Edge with Micah Parsons" podcast. "I don't think Daniel Jones should have been in that game in the fourth quarter. … I do not agree with Daniel Jones staying out there until that last drive, I thought that was wrong. I thought that was deceiving. That's your franchise quarterback, and he's out there with a backup offensive line still getting sacked and hit.”
Regarding Sunday, the Giants will be only the third team since 1970 to be favored on the road the week after losing a game by 40+ points. It’s the first time NY is a road favorite since 2020. The G-Men are 7-1 ATS on road under Daboll.
#BirdGang played pretty solid in Week 1, losing 20-16 at Washington, for its eighth straight defeat, the franchise’s longest streak since 2012. Joshua Dobbs, acquired via trade in late August, started at QB for the Cards and will again Sunday with Kyler Murray still on the PUP list. Dobbs was 21-for-30 for 132 yards in the loss. He didn’t throw a pick but had three fumbles and lost two.