Giants Look To Shoot Down Toothless Panthers!
Thursday, December 07th 2006 (Bob Acton)

December 8, 2006 (New York, NY) – Two football teams on the same express elevator, that is heading down are set to do battle Sunday afternoon in Carolina. The Carolina Panthers will host the New York Giants and for the first time in 66 games, they may have a new starting quarterback under center as injured QB Jake Delhomme may be sidelined with a sprained thumb.

SuperBook.com is where the majority of sports bettors will head to place their bets this Sunday and news of the possible change has brought the opening line from Panthers -4 to -3, but the total has shot up from 38.5 to 41. I would look for the Panthers to start former Florida State alumni Chris Weinke, who while a veteran, will be rusty to say the least.

The Giants while missing sack-master Michael Straham can still rush the passer with Kiwanuka and Umenyiora could make life miserable for the less then mobile Weinke. Weinke hasn't started since Oct. 20, 2002, at Atlanta, but did take over for an injured Delhomme early last season in Detroit and threw the winning touchdown pass with 2:41 left. He took snaps with the first team on Wednesday.

The Panthers' loss to the Eagles on Monday dropped them into a four-way tie with the Giants (6-6), Eagles and Falcons in the wild-card race. New York has dropped four in a row, including last Sunday's 23-20 loss to Dallas. The Giants though began to show some signs of waking up in the defeat.

Quarterback Eli Manning ended a three-game slump by throwing for 270 yards and two touchdowns, the defense had two interceptions and held Dallas to less than 27 minutes in time of possession, and the team battled back to tie the game three times.

In the Philadelphia game on Monday, the player considered the best at his position and that would be Julius Pepper, was very mediocre and in fact has gone three games without a sack.

The Giants could be a problem for the Panthers with the running back tandem of Barber and Jacobs and the receiving of Plaxico Burress and Jeremy Shockey.

Giant’s bettors beware as one statistic that is very difficult to ignore is that the Panthers are 3-0 against the Giants, including a 23-0 road victory in the first round of last season's playoffs.

Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams could be the key in this game!

Bob Acton

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