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Giants - Vikings
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Mon Oct 21, 8:30 PM - Vikings at Giants

Giants (0-6) vs Vikings (1-4)
Quarterback Matt Cassel did not impress the hopeful fans in Minnesota last week. He threw 2 interceptions in the game and the Panthers turned both into touchdowns. The final score was Panthers 35 - Vikings 10.
Eli Manning had his own problems in a Thursday night matchup in Chicago. His second pass of the game was intercepted and he threw a total of 3 of them, helping the Bears break their two game losing streak. The final score was Bears 27- Giants 21.

Minnesota Vikings.
Coming off back to back division titles, the Vikings then languished with 6-10 and 3-13 season records in 2010 and 2011. It was a big climb to get to 10-6 in 2012 and they even earned a wild card spot. They lost their playoff game at Green Bay less than a week after beating the Packers in the final game of the season. Hoping to build on last year's improvements, they find themselves with a 1-4 record. They are 0-2 in the division and 0-3 in the conference.
The 2013 schedule has been no help. They started with back to back division road games, got to play at home in week 3 before traveling to London to play what is considered to be a 'home' game against the Steelers. That was their first win and then they were on an early bye week before hosting Carolina last week. Next up is a trip to the Meadowlands to play the Giants.

Vikings offense.
They're into their next stage of 'quarterback roulette'. This time the ivory ball fell on double zero which roughly equates to the amount of time Josh Freeman has had to understand the workings of this offense. The recently released Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback has been with the club for less than two weeks. Regular starter Christian Ponder lost the first three games and he suffered a rib injury. Former Chiefs starter and 2010 Pro Bowler Matt Cassel, signed in the offseason, started the last two games winning his first and then lost badly last week to the Panthers. So Freeman will be the starter against the Giants on Monday night. Ponder, who has healed, will be the second active quarterback and Cassel will be third string.
Joe Webb was Ponder's backup last year and quarterbacked their playoff loss when minutes before kickoff Ponder was declared inactive with an elbow injury. Webb became the first NFL quarterback since 1950 to start a playoff game without throwing a regular-season pass and played as effective as that. He is out of their quarterback rotation and is one of their receivers right and has 3 catches for 24 yards on the season, all from last week's game. Running back Adrian Peterson missed some practice with a hamstring injury, but should be ready for this game. He's averaging 4.7 yards a carry and has 6 touchdowns, 5 of them rushing.

Vikings defense.
Carolina quarterback Cam Newton cashed in on this defense last week scoring 4 touchdowns, 3 in the air and one on the ground. That wasn't the worst news. Aside from losing linebacker Desmond Bishop to a torn ACL, they took a big hit to the secondary. One of their best players, safety Harrison Smith, will miss this game with a turf toe injury that may require surgery. The Vikings are already ranked 29th in the league against the pass. They are stronger up front and right end Jared Allen can bring it. He has 3 1/2 sacks this year and left end Brian Robison is also a good pass rusher.

Giants offense.
It's not saying much, but the offense last week looked about as good as it's been all season. They were well balanced, having finally established a running game with Brandon Jacobs rushing for over 100 yards. Take away those Eli Manning interceptions, two miscommunications to Rueben Randle and one off Brandon Myers fingers, and the Giants likely would have won their first game of the season. It's not all Manning's fault and his receivers have this team near the top in the area of drops, dropping over 11 percent of catchable passes. If the receivers can focus they have a good chance to do some damage to the Vikings secondary that has given up 13 passing touchdowns.
The Giants have their own roulette going with running backs. Da’Rel Scott suffered a hamstring injury last week and was cut once again. David Wilson is out indefinitely with a neck injury and Jacobs is now dealing with a sore hamstring. Andre Brown is looking to come back after the bye week and rookie seventh round draft pick Michael Cox still needs to improve his skills. With all this in mind, this week they signed Peyton Hillis who is expected to play in this game. Hillis had a great year for the Browns in 2010, became injured, went to the Chiefs and was dropped by Tampa Bay two weeks into the season.

Giants defense.
They certainly will have opportunities this week considering the Vikings are playing fantasy football with the most important player on their offense. Quarterback Josh Freeman hasn't had much practice time with his offensive line so the play calling should be very straight forward. That should work out great for the Giants who are last in the league with only five total sacks on the season. Twelve NFL players have 5 or more sacks on their own, and maybe more embarrassing, former Giant Osi Umenyiora has 4. Mathias Kiwanuka leads this defense with 1 1/2 sacks.
The secondary should have a heyday covering the receivers. What kind of complicated pass routes can they run having never caught a gameday pass from their new quarterback? The bad news of course is that they will have to stop Adrian Peterson. Aside from the usual dosage of Peterson, you'll have to figure they'll be scheming to have him take lots and lots of pressure off the passing game.

Overall
It's hard to believe that the Giants have actually given up twice as many points (209) as they've scored (103), but everything favors them this week against the Vikings. They're catching them at the right time. The Giants have had more time to prepare. The Vikings had to travel and they're starting a new quarterback . With both players coming off the same Tampa Bay team, n
ewly acquired running back Peyton Hillis might even have some limited knowledge to offer the defense on Josh Freeman. The Vikings are thinking - 'What better time to find our quarterback of the future and turn the season around while we still can.' The Giants are thinking - 'Please, please let us get our first win against this really lousy team.' What can go wrong here for the Giants? Stay tuned.

NFC East
On Sunday at 1pm in Philadelphia the Cowboys (3-3) and Eagles (3-3) will fight it out for the lead in the division. Meanwhile at that same time, the Redskins (1-4) will host the Bears (4-2). If you have the opportunity watch the Cowboys - Eagles game do it. See what the Giants will be up against next week when they play against the Eagles. The Eagles and Giants are favored to win their games and the others are not.

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tgtwitter TeamGiants on Twitter.Notes.
Giants Eli Manning leads the NFL with 15 interceptions,6 came on passes intended for Rueben Randle.

Giants have an NFL high of 23 turnovers.

Vikings Adrian Peterson was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 2012.

Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder was the 12th overall pick drafted by the Vikings in 2011.

Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman was the 17th overall pick drafted by Tampa Bay in 2009.

Vikings quarterback Matt Cassel was drafted by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 2005 Draft.


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