Why the Giants will Beat the Texans, Why They Won't, and A Prediction

The New York Giants are back from their Week 9 bye to begin a two-game homestand. First will be the Houston Texans, owners of the worst record in football.

But lest anyone think the Giants have already marked this game as a "W" before even taking the field, head coach Brian Daboll has a reminder as to why that would not be a good idea.

"Every team in this league is good. Any team can win any given day," he said. "If you play well, you put yourself as having a chance to win. It doesn’t guarantee anything. And if you play lousy, you’re probably going to lose."

Daboll has always stressed the next game as the most important one and doesn't want his players looking past any opponent or taking them for granted. "We just focus on the things we need to do each week – some of them are consistent. They never change based on who we’re playing," he said. "If we hit those marks, we give ourselves a chance. And if we don’t, we lose. Pretty simple."

Why the Giants Will Win

With all due respect to Saquon Barkley and his dismissal of the fact that the Texans have one of the worst run defenses in the league (much like the Seahawks), a strong argument can be made that the Giants lost to the Seahawks because the Giants as a whole didn't play well in any phase of the ball and were unable to overcome their mistakes made on special teams.

That said, the Giants should have Kenny Golladay back this week. Although Golladay has been very underwhelming as a Giant, he seems to have been rejuvenated of late in realizing he has a chance to be a part of a winning program for the first time in his career.

If the Giants can figure out how to get the deep passing game going, that should force the Texans to think twice about loading up the box on every play. The good news for the Giants is that the Texans don’t blitz very often, and when they do, it's not usually disguised, which should help quarterback Daniel Jones make any necessary adjustments on the deep ball attempts.

The Giants are 8-7 in games when Barkley rushes for 100+ yards.

Why the Giants Will Lose

Two words: Dameon Pierce. If the Giants run defense struggles against the NFL's sixth-best rusher (678 yards), they could be in for a long afternoon. Pierce has racked up the rushing yards and accumulated 26 broken tackles in the first nine weeks of the season, the most by any player in the NFL so far this year.

Prediction

The Giants haven't come out of the bye week on fire, as their 17-34 post-bye week record indicates. That said, they're rested, at home, and playing a football team with a somewhat outdated defensive system.

There's no such thing as a "gimme" in sports, but this should be pretty close for the Giants if they've cleaned up the flaws that sunk their battleship against the Seahawks two weeks ago.

Giants 24, Texans 17

Join the Giants Country Community

Sign up for our FREE digest newsletter
Follow and like us on Facebook
Submit your questions for our mailbag
Check out the new Giants Country YouTube Channel.
Listen and subscribe to the daily LockedOn Giants podcast.
Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
Sign up for our FREE message board forums
Get your Giants tickets today from SI Tickets!