Sunday Night – New York Giants at Denver Broncos

A year or two ago, this had Super Bowl preview written all over it. These days, not so much. The Giants are still a legitimate contender with Eli Manning at the helm and OBJ dazzling on a weekly basis. However, the Broncos aren’t looking quite as formidable anymore. It’s that whole “lacking a decent quarterback” thing. Nonetheless, Denver still has one of the league’s best defensive units and they’ll certainly put Manning and company to the test on Sunday night.

Keys to the Game
Giants
The Giants have one very important key to this game: protect the football. If they want to win in Denver, they cannot afford to turn the ball over. Yes, Eli, I’m looking at you. Eli has a propensity for letting things get out of hand and giving the ball away when things go wrong. He’s one of the best in the league when he’s good and he’s one of the worst when he’s not. The Giants cannot win this game with Bad Eli. I can’t stress that enough. If they protect the ball, it will give playmakers like OBJ and Sterling Shepard plenty of opportunities to put points on the board and run the Broncos out of the building.

Broncos
The game plan for Denver will be the exact opposite — they need to bring out Bad Eli and they have just the defense to do it. Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. will frustrate Beckham Jr. and Shepard all night long while the pass rush puts Eli in tough situations. That’s the exact formula for making Eli throw an interception or three. As talented as the Giants may be, they’re going to have an extremely difficult time beating the Broncos if they turn the ball over multiple times. If Denver gets to Eli, they’ll win this game easily.