NFL Football Handicapping Advice For Betting On Football

CAPPING TOOLS: |FREE PICKS| |ARTICLES| |WEATHER| |STATS| |INJURIES| ODDS: | NFL | |NCAA|

NFL Betting Preview

Kansas City Chiefs (0-1 this pre-season) +3 ½, o/u 35 at New York Giants (1-0), 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday, Fox

Coach Herman Edwards returns to the sidelines at The Meadowlands in New Jersey Thursday night, not as the pilot of the Jets but as the new head honcho of the Kansas City Chiefs. KC takes on the New York Giants in the second exhibition game of this season for both teams.

Edwards jumped ship and replaced mentor Dick Vermeil in KC over the off-season. He brings with him a solid reputation but just a 41-44 overall record as head coach.

The Giants, on the other sideline, are in their third season under head coach Tom Coughlin. New York is the defending NFC Eastern Division champion, but is looking to bounce back after that disappointing 23-0 home playoff loss to Carolina last January.

The Chiefs opened their exhibition season with a 24-14 loss at the Houston Texans five days ago. The KC offense managed just 172 total yards vs. Houston, and just 66 passing yards. Meanwhile, the Chiefs defense gave up 325 yards, 173 of which came on the ground.

New York began this season with a 17-16 exhibition victory over the Ravens in Baltimore six days ago. The Giants mustered just 68 yards rushing, but it was the defense, which allowed 137 rushing yards at a 5.3 yards per carry clip, that angered Coughlin.

The Chiefs visited the Giants for a regular-season game last December. New York (specifically Tiki Barber) ran for 223 yards in a 27-17 Giants win. Larry Johnson wasn’t too bad that night, either, helping KC run for 188 yards of their own.

Reports have Chiefs starting QB Trent Green and the first-string offense playing into the second quarter Thursday night. Green is backed up by former CFLer Casey Printers, Damon Huard and rookie Brodie Croyle. But Croyle is out with an injury and Huard is listed as questionable, so Printers is expected to play quite a bit Thursday night. Last Sunday vs. Houston, Printers was sacked five times in 17 drop-backs guiding the second-team offense.

Giants QB Eli Manning is backed up by Rob Johnson, Tim Hasselbeck and Jared Lorenzen. Johnson has missed the last two NFL seasons with a shoulder injury, but is listed as the #2 man Thursday night.

Lorenzen led the Giants to a late drive last Saturday that resulted in the game-winning field goal vs. Baltimore.

The Giants defense, especially the front seven, is already banged up, and several projected regular-season defensive starters are expected to watch the action from the sidelines Thursday night.

In his five seasons in charge of the Jets, Edwards went 15-6 straight up during the exhibition season, and 14-7 ATS.

In two seasons under Coughlin, the Giants are 4-4 SU in pre-season games.

The over/under on this game opened up at 37 ½, but as of Thursday morning had been bet down to 35.