NY Giants Back to Being Underdogs Ahead of Week 16 Game vs Vikings

For those in the New York Giants fanbase who were a little shocked to see the team chosen as the favorites in their previous matchup with the Washington Commanders last Sunday, the surprise will not last long, as it's back to the status quo for the franchise in advance of Week 16.

The idea that the Giants would earn the trust of the oddsmakers in any of their remaining games this season was not in most people's cards last week. Still, the betting market ended up giving them a shot at home against a banged-up Commanders squad, who they've had pretty success with in recent years.

However, the Giants did everything possible to soil that trust, losing 29-21 at MetLife Stadium to hand their divisional rivals the clean sweep for the second consecutive season and maintain their No. 1 spot in the 2026 NFL Draft.

With the next game on the horizon, New York's brief stint as a betting favorite has been flipped back to reality by the oddsmakers, despite them being at home again. According to FanDuel's opening odds for Week 16, the Giants are listed as 2.5-point underdogs to the visiting Minnesota Vikings.

In addition to the reversed line from last week against Washington, the oddsmakers have set the over/under points total for the contest at 43.5 points for a three-point drop from the previous two games and a number that the Giants covered both times.

Seeing the Giants back on the unfavorable side of the betting market is really no surprise after the type of performance they put forth in the friendly confines of East Rutherford against Washington, which marked the first time the NFC East foe had swept them in consecutive seasons since 1982-83.

While they managed to find some offensive success and rarely forced a couple of turnovers, they also suffered a few blows from the same mishaps that have cost them games throughout the season and altered the narrative from a decent team on the playoff bubble to holding two wins with only three games left on the schedule.

Now, they have the Vikings coming to town, who are also eliminated from playoff contention but are still fighting to play for pride and riding high on a two-game winning streak in which they shut out the same Commanders team and then stunned the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington on Sunday Night Football.

More importantly, the Giants have not had the best of luck against Minnesota in their recent head-to-head meetings, which have gone to the Vikings four of the last five times.

The latest of those came last fall in the season opener at MetLife Stadium, when the Vikings rolled in and stymied the Giants' offense, running away with a 28-6 victory that kick-started the Giants' spiral towards a 3-14 record and a reset at quarterback.

Compared to that last faceoff, the Vikings are finally being led on the offensive side of the ball by quarterback J.J. McCarthy, who missed his rookie campaign with an ACL injury that he suffered during the 2024 preseason.

Dec 14, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) throws during the first half against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

McCarthy's presence on the field has been a strong reassurance for the Vikings franchise after they had spent a 10th overall selection to recruit him from Michigan on the heels of leading the school to a national championship over fellow second-year gunslinger and current Atlanta Falcon Michael Penix Jr. and the Washington Huskies.

That said, it's been quite the rookie-type season for McCarthy, who has had his hiccups under center that have him holding 1,342 passing yards and an 11-11 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his first eight starts in the NFL.

He has also missed the other five games with a high-ankle sprain suffered in Week 2, which has limited the overall evaluation of his growth in the Vikings' system, led by head coach Kevin O'Connell.

Having some inconsistency at the quarterback position has dropped the Vikings' offensive huddle from a top-five producing unit in 2024 to the 25th- and 28th-ranked groups in points and yards, respectively, this season.

They boast a mediocre pass protection up front (No. 23 pass block win rate) after losing some key pieces from last year's offensive line. It has resulted in their inability to move the football at more than 5.4 yards per play through the air and punch in six points at a rate better than the lower third amongst the other 31 teams in the league.

What has helped Minnesota play in more close games during the second half of the season is the strength of their defense, which excels at making opponents beat them on the ground and protecting the red zone at one of the elite rates in the sport.

They have allowed the fifth-lowest passing yards to foes and the second-best opponent redzone scoring rate of 45.5% in their first 14 games, and that is a number that stands out ahead of a matchup with the Giants, who have barely converted half of their redzone trips and whose play calling tends to make them stall out in that area.

By no means is this the same Vikings squad that throttled the Giants in their own building just 15 months ago, but it's still a tough time for this contest as the road team doesn't appear to be selling out on stacking some wins and building culture for the 2026 season.

They'll look to keep the good times rolling in what has been an apathetic and mostly empty home environment in East Rutherford for the Giants, who will have to clean up their horrendous miscues in all three phases if they don't want to suffer another embarrassing loss on the tail end of their already miserable 2025 journey.

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