Patriots Odds: Bet ‘Under’ Total In First Preseason Game vs. Giants

The New England Patriots open their preseason Thursday night at home against the New York Giants.

Preseason games by nature are far from firework shows as many teams don’t play their starters and the rust tends to be very real in openers because offenses haven’t seen live competition in months.

New England opened as a 2-point favorite earlier this week and New York quickly swung to the favorite after rumors started to surface that quarterback Mac Jones wouldn’t play Thursday. ESPN’s Mike Reiss added fuel to the fire Tuesday by saying he would be surprised if Jones suited up.

Hmmm.

Meanwhile, the Giants-Pats point total is currently sitting at O/U 33.5.

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My colleague Zack Cox recently wrote about the Patriots’ offensive issues (with Jones) and the team’s struggles with a brand-new system and first-time NFL play caller are far from top secret. Moreover, Patriots’ wide receiver Jakobi Meyers made some pretty interesting comments that raised my eyebrows.

“(New England) is the kind of place where they want everything perfect, so it’s just — change and perfection are kind of a hard mix,” Meyers told the NFL Network. “So we’ve kind of been going through it. But at the same time, I think it’s a great learning experience, and the fact that we’re all doing it together is actually pretty good for us.”

This doesn’t sound like a situation that will be fixed in a matter of days.

The Giants now are favored by 2.5 — the line moved there early Wednesday morning — but the total hasn’t budged. And that doesn’t make any sense. Brian Hoyer and Bailey Zappe don’t scare me one bit and Bill Belichick’s defense shouldn’t have many issues solving Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor for 24 minutes before New York likely gives way to Davis Webb in the second half.

Considering all the aforementioned issues with New England’s offense along with New York still experiencing its fair share of growing pains installing new head coach Brian Daboll’s schematics, it’s fair to say both offenses are a serious work in progress until further notice.

I don’t expect many touchdowns between the Giants and Patriots.

NYG-NE “Under” 33.5 points (-110)

RECORD: (118-123, +22.7)