New York Giants @ Washington Commanders

Awful. Horrific. A debacle. These are just a few words that describe the Giants' performance last week at Dallas.

To be fair, expectations were not high heading into their matchup against the Cowboys. New York lost to Dallas at home in Week 1 40-0, and that was with Daniel Jones at QB. The Giants were clearly even more outclassed last week with third-string rookie QB Tommy DeVito under center, so things were never going to be good.

Still, it was even worse than most could've imagined. New York closed as massive 17.5-point underdogs heading into the game, and even so, they never really came close to threatening a cover.

Offensively, DeVito & Co. found virtually no success against a stout Cowboys defense, managing just 172 yards of total offense, with most of that coming in garbage time. At halftime, Dallas had more points than New York had yards.

As bad as things were on that side of the ball, the defense was arguably even worse. They allowed 640 total yards to the Cowboys, and Dak Prescott didn’t even need to play the fourth quarter. Overall, it was the eighth-most yards allowed in a regular season game since 1966.

The Giants have now played two games since trading away Leonard Williams, and they've surrendered 79 total points in those games. New York also lost both games by at least 24 points and are clearly the worst team in football.

Nov 12, 2023; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys defensive end Dorance Armstrong (92) sacks New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito (15) in the second half at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

In fact, the Massey-Peabody Power Ratings had the Giants as -12.64 points below average, and the next closest team was the Panthers at just -6.95. After last week’s performance, it wouldn’t shock me if New York has since been downgraded even further.

On the other side, the Commanders fared well in a very tough spot against the Seahawks. They were playing in Seattle, and Pete Carroll's teams have historically fared extremely well after a loss.

In spite of the tough road matchup, Washington managed to tie the game with less than a minute left to go. The Seahawks ended up marching down the field for a game-winning field goal as time expired, but the Commanders impressed overall and managed to cover.

Washington is far from a perfect football team – especially after trading away Chase Young and Montez Sweat – but they can at least move the ball on offense. And when Sam Howell has time in the pocket, he’s proven that he can be effective.

Nov 12, 2023; Seattle, Washington, USA; Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell (14) passes under pressure from Seattle Seahawks linebacker Darrell Taylor (52) during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Per Pro Football Focus (PFF), Howell has completed 71% of his passes with 12 TDs to only three INTs from a clean pocket this year. However, those numbers drop significantly when he’s been under pressure. That’s not a rare phenomenon, as most QBs are better when they don’t have 300-pound defensive linemen trying to take their heads off, but it’s more than what the Giants have at this point.

It’s weird to say that the Commanders deserve to be favored by double-figures against anyone, but I actually think that 10 points might not be enough here. That’s how bad this Giants team is right now, and I’ve personally never had a team rated worse than them.

I locked a play on the Commanders into the Bet Tracker at -9.5, and that number is still available at a few locations across the industry. The sharps have been on Washington in this spot, so I suggest playing that number while you still can. 10 points isn’t the most important key number in NFL betting, but the difference between 9.5 and 10 is still an edge worth grabbing.