The New York Giants (3-8) and New England Patriots (2-8) will square off on Sunday afternoon in a Week 12 matchup at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The Giants opened the week as 3.5-point home underdogs and that’s where the spread remains of this writing after briefly dropping to +3.
With this matchup on tap, Giants Wire took the opportunity to hold a Q&A with Patriots Wire managing editor Jordy McElroy.
Mac Jones showed a lot of promise early in his career but from the outside looking in, appears to have fallen off. What's gone wrong and who starts on Sunday?
McElroy: What hasn’t gone wrong? That’s the question Patriots fans are asking right now. Mac Jones hasn’t been good, but he’s the team’s best option at quarterback. Bailey Zappe has been an even worse disaster under center, Will Grier isn’t comfortable enough with the offense and rookie Malik Cunningham isn’t ready. So Jones it is on Sunday, most likely.
With that said, this isn’t all on the quarterback. The Patriots have failed Jones at every turn. He’s had three different offensive coordinators in his three years with the team to go along with a struggling offensive line and one of the worst receiving corps in football.
We noted this week that you named Jabrill Peppers the team's mid-season MVP. How has he upped his game this year and what does he mean to the defense?
Jabrill Peppers is playing with a different kind of assertiveness and command on the backend of the defense. It’s much-needed with Devin McCourty hanging up his cleats after last season. Good things tend to happen whenever the Patriots’ safety is around the ball. If he isn’t taking the ball away, he’s creating situations for his teammates to make plays.
Look at the massive hit he put on Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams that caused a pop-up interception.
Jabrill Peppers and Jahlani Tavai team up for a crazy INT 😱
📺: #NEvsLV on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/B4mQvLOt8O pic.twitter.com/vHQjDgCxEv— NFL (@NFL) October 15, 2023
He currently has a career-best Pro Football Focus grade (85.9), and it’s the fourth-highest at the safety position in the NFL. In Peppers’ second season with the Patriots, he has gone from a strong contributor to one of the most important players on the defense.
No matter how much the Patriots struggle, Bill Belichick seems to own rookie quarterbacks. What accounts for that dominance?
The defense is still one of the Patriots’ biggest strengths. Even in a struggling season, they have managed to keep the team in games they have no business being in. In their last outing, they managed to hold the Indianapolis Colts’ top-10 scoring offense to only 10 points.
Where Bill Belichick has flopped at has been building the roster on the offensive side of the ball in the post-Tom Brady era. He’s still as great as he’s ever been when it comes to the business of disguising coverages and fooling first-time NFL quarterbacks.
Speaking of Belichick, is this his final season in New England? And what do you make of the Belichick-to-Giants speculation?
Of course, there’s no certainty that Belichick is coaching his final season in New England, but the writing is on the wall that the end is coming. The Patriots are likely headed towards a major rebuild in 2024, and at this point, it doesn’t make sense to keep a 71-year-old Belichick around to oversee decisions that could potentially impact the team for the next decade.
As for Belichick’s future, it would make sense for him to keep coaching and chasing Don Schula’s all-time wins record. The Giants would certainly be an interesting destination, and given his long history as a former defensive coach for the team, it would have to be one of the options on his list.
This promises to be a low-scoring game but let's hear your prediction. How do you see this game playing out, who wins and what's the score?
Some Patriots fans are hoping the team continues to rack up losses to sweeten the chances of them landing either Caleb Williams or Drake Maye in the 2024 NFL draft. But unfortunately for that group, the Patriots will be running into a Giants team that has been just as bad as they are this year.
If Bill Belichick can stop Josh Allen and Zach Wilson once this season, there’s a good chance he can figure out a way to beat Tommy DeVito and the Giants.
Prediction: Patriots 17, Giants 14
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