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Giants - Washington
Game 17 preview
Sunday Jan 9, 1:00 PM - Washington at Giants

Giants (4-12) Washington (6-10)
The Washington Football Team got off to a fast start last week in their game with the Philadelphia Eagles. Washington was leading 16-7 at the halftime break, but failed to score after that. Washington ended up with a 20-16 loss to the Eagles.
Last Sunday the Giants played their game in Chicago, and finished with their lowest scoring game of the season. The Giants managed just one field goal while taking a 29-3 loss to the Chicago Bears.

Washington
Washington started off the season with a 2-2 record. The next 12 games after that were four losses, four wins, and four losses. Those last four were all against their division opponents. Washington has only one win in the division, and that came earlier in the season playing against the Giants in week 2. That close 30-29 game was decided on the last play of the game. Washington's kicker missed on a field goal attempt, but the Giants apparent win was nullified as they were ruled offsides. Dustin Hopkins next kick was good, and Washington got the win.

Washington Offense
Last year, Taylor Heinicke was Washington's "quarantine quarterback", taking online math classes at Old Dominion, when Washington called on him for their playoff game in place of injured starter Alex Smith. Though Washington lost, Heinicke did well in that game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In just his second pro start, Heinicke threw for 306 yards and 1 touchdown, and ran for 46 yards and a touchdown. This year he was a backup who made his appearance in the very first game of the season. Starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered a right hip injury midway through the second quarter, and Heinicke stepped in to finish the game.
Heinicke's performance was actually better than what Fitzpatrick had shown up to that point, with Heinicke completing 11 of 15 passes for 122 yards, and one touchdown. Washington lost that game to the Los Angeles Chargers by four points. In Week 2 against the Giants, Heinicke completed 34 passes, the most by a Washington quarterback against the Giants in a single game in their franchise history. Overall, Heinicke has thrown for 3,299 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions this season.
Terry McLaurin is the biggest receiving threat on the team. He has 73 receptions for 960 yards and 5 touchdowns. McLaurin has been targeted 124 times, more than twice anyone else on the team. It didn't help Washington over their four game losing streak that running back J.D. McKissic was lost for the season in December. Aside from his running skills, and absent for five games, McKissic still ranks second on the team with 43 receptions, and 2 touchdowns. Antonio Gibson is the top running back with 237 carries for 891 yards 6 touchdowns.

Washington Defense
They're probably wondering what the Giants will throw at them, or more likely not throw at them considering their quarterback situation. The Giants had absolutely no passing attack last week, and no one is expecting to see much from quarterback Jake Fromm making his second career start. After seeing how Fromm did his first time out, no one was very impressed. Still, Washington's defense was ranked 2nd in the league last year, allowing just 192 passing yards a game, and now they're 30th, giving up an average 265 yards.
When it comes to quarterback pressure, as far as sacks go, they won't hit the 47 mark they had last year, even with an extra game, since they currently have 35. Montez Sweat led the team last year with 9, and Chase Young had 7.5, but losing Young for the season a few weeks ago did not help. Sweat has 5 sacks, and has missed games, and has been ruled out for this next one. Jonathan Allen has stepped up his game, and currently leads the team with 8.5 sacks.
Rushing defense has improved, allowing an average of just 105 yards a game, ranking them 8th in the league. Last week the Eagles had 34 carries for 118 yards, including the 47 yards and 2 touchdowns by Boston Scott. They'll be expecting to see a lot of Saquon Barkley coming at them on Sunday. Last time they faced off with him,
Barkley had 13 rushes for 57 yards for a 4.4 average, and he had 2 receptions for 12 yards.

Giants Offense
With Mike Glennon suffering a season ending wrist injury to his non-throwing hand in last week's game with the Cowboys, Jake Fromm started against the Eagles in Week 16, and completed 6 of his 17 passes for 25 yards, and one interception. That sounds pretty bad, and you can compare it to Glennon's start last week, where he completed 4 of 11 passes for 24 yards with two interceptions, while taking 4 sacks that lost the 24 total passing yards and more.
Fromm might like to hear that his counterpart for this game, Taylor Heinicke, in his first career start playing for the Carolina Panthers, was on the losing end of a 24-10 game with the Atlanta Falcons, throwing one touchdown and 3 interceptions. Now Heinicke is looked to be at least a viable second string NFL quarterback, if not more, so here's Fromm's opportunity to show what he could possibly do, even though he is stuck doing it under the very worst circumstances.
Kadarius Toney has been ruled out for Sunday. He and Kenny Golladay have caught no touchdowns this season. John Ross is out, and Collin Johnson is questionable. On the line, Will Hernandez is questionable, but Billy Price is back after missing the last game. Saquon Barkley carried the ball a season high 21 times last week, and you would expect him to be the main firepower for the Giants in this game as well.

Giants Defense
Last week the lack of offense put the defensive unit in poor field positions. The Giants early drives had the defense on the field backed up at their own 2, and 24 yard lines. In the second half, they stopped the Bears twice starting from five or six yards from midfield, and once from the Giants 15-yard line. The defense gave up only 7 points during that stretch and came up with 2 interceptions. With the Giants scoring a total of 19 points over the last three games, the defense has become an overworked unit. Taylor Heinicke struggles at times, and has thrown at least one interception in each of the last five games, so there may be opportunities.

Overall
The Giants and the Washington Football Team will play in the final game of the season at MetLife Stadium this Sunday. They are both out of playoff contention and no matter the outcome of this game, Washington will finish third in the NFC East, and the Giants will be in fourth place. In that same pecking order, they finished first and second last year, with every team in the division failing to have better than Washington's lackluster 7-9 record. The two worst teams from last year, the Cowboys and Eagles, have both clinched playoff spots. So what can we say to the Giants and Washington fans about this final game? Well, maybe wait until next year.

NFC East Games
Saturday at 8:15pm Cowboys (11-5) at Eagles (9-7).
Sunday at 1:00pm Washington (6-10) at Giants (4-12)
The Cowboys and Washington are the NFC East teams favored to win in these games.
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Notes.

Giants have lost five consecutive games and six of the last seven.

Giants have gone nine consecutive games without one of their wide receivers catching a touchdown pass.

Giants have let teams score points in the last two minutes of the first half in every game this season.
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