The Monday Night Football matchup in Week 7 has two teams looking to turn around their seasons and one is a recent Super Bowl champion in the New York Giants, while the other team is the Minnesota Vikings, a playoff team from a year ago and now the two will do battle on ESPN at 8:30 pm the final game of the week at MetLife Stadium.
The Giants and the Vikings are not playing their best football now and each team is coming off of a loss, meaning the game on Monday night is even more important to both clubs and while New York has been terrible, they showed some signs of life last week against the Bears. Many thought the Giants would finally get it together against the Bears, but after two early Eli Manning interceptions, it was more of the same from NY. The team got behind and while they were able to finally rush the ball and came back, an Eli Manning pick sealed it at the end and now the team is winless at 0-6 at the bottom of the NFC East division.
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The Giants are looking to play their first "complete" game of the season, as they have done nothing right all the way in the three phases of the game and after a long week of reflection after playing on Monday night, they have the chance to turn things around. Manning has 15 interceptions already and nine touchdowns and while he has passed for over 1,700 yards, it hasn't been enough to turn the team around and now the rushing attack is expected to be even weaker, as Brandon Jacobs will be out and new running back Peyton Hillis will be in the lineup with rookie Michael Cox. Victor Cruz has had another great season with 35 catches for over 540 yards and four touchdowns, while Hakeem Nicks has been the big play receiver with 25 catches for 442 while averaging over 17 yards per catch.
The offense is ranked in the top 10 in passing yards per game, but they are 31st in rushing yards per game and now they face a team with one of the best backs in football in Adrian Peterson. The Vikings have not been great on offense and they are averaging just over 110 yards on the ground per game and the defense has been very disappointing, giving up over 300 yards in the air per game. As bad as the Giants have been, they might be able to exploit the secondary of the Vikings and that could be huge for a team looking for its first win of the year.
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The Giants are coming off of a loss to the Bears and the final play for the team in that game came off the hands of Brandon Myers, who allowed the ball to bounce into the arms of Chicago, ending any chance at a comeback. The Giants will next play against the Eagles and then they have a much needed bye week and after that they have three straight home games, including against the Oakland Raiders, Green Bay Packers and Dallas cowboys.
The team then plays on the road against the Washington Redskins and the San Diego Chargers before coming back home against the Seattle Seahawks. After a road game against the Lions in Detroit, the team comes back home for the final game against Washington at MetLife for the Redskins. The game on Monday night gets started up at 8:30 pm and will be on ESPN for the Giants and the Vikings.