The New York Giants suffered what can be considered their first bad loss of the season (31-18 at home to the Detroit Lions), and their playoff odds dropped considerably due to the rest of the results in Week 11 of the NFL season.
For the first time all year, the upstart NY Giants’ playoff odds (now 7-3 after losing two of their last three games) got a bit longer.
NY Giants Odds to Make the Playoffs (via FanDuel)
| TEAM | CURRENT ODDS TO MAKE PLAYOFFS | ODDS AFTER WEEK 7 (6-1) | ODDS AFTER WEEK 5 | ODDS AFTER WEEK 4 | PRESEASON ODDS |
| New York Giants | -150 | -300 | +105 | +180 | +225 |
While just 3-point favorites against the Lions, many thought that the Giants would figure out a way to win like they had against other teams with losing records this year.
Detroit, however, exploited some of the Giants’ weaknesses, and New York also suffered some injuries that could prove costly (primarily to rookie receiver WanDale Robinson).
Lions Showed Teams How to Beat the Giants
Detroit did three things well on Sunday:
- Shut down Saquon Barkley (22 yards on 15 attempts)
- Force Daniel Jones into mistakes in the passing game (two interceptions; his first since Week 3)
- Make the Giants play from behind
While New York has been solid in the fourth quarter (4-2 when trailing in the final period, going into Sunday), they are not built to score points quickly. With a strong rushing game and a passing game that often gains yards in small increments instead of big chunks, the Lions having the Giants down double digits kept New York from being able to come back.
The turnovers also led to short fields, which the defense couldn’t come back from in allowing three short touchdowns to Jamaal Williams.
For the Giants, Jones been solid this year but is still prone to mistakes such as these, not seeing Lions linebacker Aidan Hutchinson drop back into coverage and pull Jones’ pass right out of the air.
Schedule Suddenly Tougher for NY Giants Thanks to Washington Resurgence
With the state of the NFC, the Giants are still in prime playoff position, where the top-three teams in the Wild Card standings make the playoffs. But the NY Giants playoff odds are in some doubt now.
| NFC WILD CARD RACE | RECORD | NOTES |
| 1. Dallas Cowboys | 7-3 | Own head-to-head tiebreaker over NYG |
| 2. New York Giants | 7-3 | |
| 3. San Francisco 49ers | 5-4 | Play Arizona tonight to close Week 11 |
| 4. Washington Commanders | 6-5 | |
| 5. Atlanta Falcons | 5-6 |
The Giants play at Dallas this Thursday on Thanksgiving day, and New York is a 9-point underdog. Dallas, with backup quarterback Cooper Rush, defeated NY at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.
After that, two of the Giants following three games are against Washington. When the Commanders were 1-4, this didn’t look like a daunting matchup for New York. But now, since handing over the quarterback reins to Taylor Heinicke, Washington has won five of their last six games. They face Atlanta at home this week in a game that’s big for both teams, and the Giants should be a Falcons fan this Sunday. Otherwise with a Commanders win and Giants loss, Washington will be in position to overtake the Giants in the standings the following week.
Washington’s odds to make the playoffs are at +150, so while the Giants are still favored, the road got much harder for New York with last week’s loss.
A win over Dallas would put the G-Men back on track, but expect their odds to get closer to even money with a loss to Dallas, so if you still want to bet on the Giants to reach the playoffs, you may want to wait until after Thursday’s game if you believe the Cowboys will win.
