Carolina at New York

How good is this Giants team? Overall they were 11-5 on the season and 10-5 ATS. Very good. But wait. Let's take a look at home/away. In the Meadowlands these guys were nearly unstoppable going 8-1 SU and 7-2 ATS. One ATS loss came against Denver and they really had just one letdown game against the Vikings to kill a perfect home record. They won by 13 points on average in those games. Now, Carolina played well on the road this year but they did so against very weak competition including Miami (early season), Arizona, Detroit, Buffalo and New Orleans. Carolina hasn't faced an offense near this good all year. The best offense they have faced is... well. It's hard to say. I guess it was New England, and then Arizona. New England put up 27 on them and Arizona, 24. Against good defenses, New York scored 24 against Denver, and 56 against Washington in two games. Carolina will have their hands full with the likes of Buress, Barber, Toomer and Shockey. And, don't discount a New York defense that, after a slow start, has gelled into a solid unit. Now that the playoffs are here, many are predicting another Carolina Superbowl run. But, the Panthers lack something very important that they had last time around - a running game. Carolina has been here before but I give the intangible edge to Eli Manning and the Giants in this game. He showed us multiple times this year that he can drive for a key score under immense pressure. Coughlin is 76% as a home favorite of under 3 points in his career. The Giants home field advantage is big and the playoffs magnify it five-fold. G-Men for two stars.