Carolina Panthers vs. New York Giants Odds & Pick: September 12th 2010

Carolina Panthers vs. New York Giants
Pick: Carolina Panthers +7 -110 odds
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I’m looking ahead to Week 1, and will recommend a play on the Carolina Panthers, currently sitting as 7-point dogs as they hit the road to take on the New York Football Giants.

Carolina went 9-7 ATS last season; it went 1-3 ATS in the pre-season this year, with its lone win coming in Week 3 when of course the starters saw the majority of the playing time.

The Giants went 6-9-1 ATS last season; they went 1-2-1 in the pre-season this year, losing badly on the road in Week 3 to the Ravens, 24-10.

The last time these teams met, the Panthers destroyed the Giants 41-9 in New York back on the 27th of December.

The Giants were inconsistent last year and plagued with injury.

Its running game was a disaster; Brandon Jacobs has yet to make it through a full season since becoming a starter in 2007; Ahmad Bradshaw enters his final year of his rookie contract so should be plenty motivated; that said, he’s also been prone to the injury bug.

The defensive line will be looking to bounce back from a sub par campaign; it was ravaged by injury last season and will be an issue again this year.

DE Osi Umenyiora was recently advised to have hip surgery on an injury that’s been bugging him since 2006; he’s chosen to ignore that advice and will be playing through injury.

Tom Coughlin has put an emphasis on running the ball more effectively and to take better care of it; in 2008 this team turned it over 22 times; in 2009 the Giants had 24 turnovers which led to 102 points for their opposition. They will also look to be more effective in the red zone as they converted only 48% of their 56 total possessions into TD’s, which ranked them 11th in the NFC.

Although its just pre-season, Carolina’s defense ranked first overall, and second in points allowed. They also had a league high 18 sacks.

Pre-season or not, that’s impressive.

Once thought the weak point of this team, its clear that the defense is going to be a strength heading into the 2010 campaign.

And that’s good news for Matt Moore and Jimmy Clausen who should benefit from the return of veteran Steve Smith who remains on track to play in this game.

Carolina’s pass rush is awesome; those 18 pre-season sacks came from a variety of players; the line is led by Charles Johnson.

I believe the Giants have more questions than answers coming into this season and look for the Panthers to keep this one closer than what the oddsmakers are leading us to believe; consider a second look at CAROLINA on opening Sunday gentlemen!