How does the Big Blue View staff see Sunday’s New York Giants-Kansas City Chiefs game? Let’s look at our staff picks for Week 3 of the NFL season and find out.
Tony DelGenio
I really want to pick the Giants to get off the schneid and beat Kansas City on Sunday night. The Chiefs have been in decline the last couple of years even though they keep getting to the Super Bowl thanks to the superhuman Patrick Mahomes. They never satisfactorily replaced Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce is starting to show his age, and the offensive line is not what it used to be. (The defense however has gotten stronger over the years.) I just can’t do it, though. The Giants got perhaps the best performance of Russell Wilson’s career last week yet still lost to Dallas because the defense couldn’t stop Dak Prescott when it mattered and didn’t even aggressively try to do so. There’s talent on the Giants’ defense, and if I were confident that Shane Bowen would come up with a clever scheme to limit Mahomes’ options and give the pass rush time to get to him the way the Eagles did in the last Super Bowl, I’d go for it. Bowen just hasn’t shown that, though. I do see Russell Wilson having another good week because he can handle Steve Spagnuolo’s blitzes…if the offensive line can limit the damage done by Chris Jones and George Karlaftis. I see this game being another high-scoring affair. And you don’t want to get into a high scoring game against Mahomes. Just ask Brian Daboll, who was hired by the Giants five days after Mahomes drove the Chiefs to a tying field goal in the final 13 seconds of their playoff game against the Bills and then won it in OT.
Prediction: Chiefs
Chris Pflum
Can I do it? Can I bring myself to pick the Giants over the Chiefs?
My rule is that I don’t pick the Giants until they prove that they can win a game — not just not-lose a game. But this week I said that I believe they’re close to putting it all together. They’ve played good defense through the first three quarters of each of the first two games, and finally found the endzone in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys. I couldn’t tell you whether this is the week the Giants click and play a complete game, but this might be the most vulnerable the Chiefs have looked since before Andy Reid got there.
There’s still plenty that worries me about this game: Andy Reid, Spags, Mahomes, Chris Jones, and (a diminished but still good) Travis Kelce. But I’m going to pick the Giants in an upset.
Prediction: Giants
James Hickey
Hey, did you hear about the 2007 Giants that started 0-2 and won the Super Bowl that year? The interesting through-line about that overused factoid is that the defensive coordinator for the Giants that day will be on the opposite sideline Sunday night: Steve Spagnuolo. If we are being honest, the pressure of this game is all on the Chiefs— the narrative of the game is not just is the season on the line but so is their championship window.
For the Giants, they are coming off a crushing loss and their season feels at a crossroads as well. When the season started, most had this game as a loss for the Giants. But know, the Chiefs do not seem as mighty. The possible return of Andrew Thomas is huge and win in the national spotlight would good a long way to turning the narrative around about the team on the field, the coaches and the front office. The game feels less like a shootout and more like a defensive back and forth affair as the strength of both teams now is their defenses.
Picking against a Andy Reid coached team in a must win situation with Patrick Mahomes under center seems foolish. But here I am because I believe that window has closed for the Chiefs and I was never one that automatically put this as a loss when the schedules came out this year. In fact, their two losses to the Chargers and Eagles has only reinforced my belief that this is a winnable game.
Home opener. Under the lights. Home underdog. All the focus on what is wrong with the other team. Give me the Giants on the national stage Sunday night.
Pick: Giants 28, Chiefs 17
David Hartman
For what feels like the umpteenth time in the last few seasons, the G-Men had their hearts broken last week by a last-second field goal from outside of 60 yards. In fact, Brandon Aubrey became the first kicker in NFL history to hit a game-tying FG as time expired in the 4th quarter and another one to win as time expired in OT. Only the Giants…
The effort in Dallas was encouraging (for the offense, anyway), and now the Giants head home for their home opener, against Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the 0-2 Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chiefs lost their second game of the 2024 season in Week 18, with their starters on the sidelines. This season, they lost their second game in Week 2. Last season, they were perfect in one score games. This season, they’re 0-2 in those contests. Their two losses were against the Eagles and Chargers, so let’s not overstate their demise just yet. Still, this is a must-win game for them. Teams that start 0-3 have a 2.5% success rate in terms of making the playoffs.
This Chiefs team may not be as good as the teams that went to the last three Super Bowls, but I just can’t see them losing to the Giants. Their defense is light years better than the Cowboys’ unit, and Mahomes leads the NFL in several scrambling statistics through two games and should have some success even when his protection breaks down against the Giants’ pass rush. Dak Prescott had his way against the Big Blue secondary last week and with Xavier Worthy likely back, Mahomes should have enough speed and weaponry at his disposal to do the same. The Giants are also struggling mightily against the run, so the Chiefs have a chance to get their running game going too. Big Blue might stay within a score, but for the third straight week I’ll predict a NYG loss.
Pick: Chiefs by six.
Valentine’s View
I want to, but … I … just … can’t … do … it. I just can’t pick the New York Giants to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, these are not the CHIEFS as the world has come to know them in recent years. They are more like the chiefs, seeming more and more like a shell of what they used to be.
The Giants, though, still haven’t figured out how to win games.
I’ve been fooled too many times by this team, which has now lost 13 of its last 14 games. I want to believe they are better. I do believe they have better personnel than at any time in the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll era. At some point, though, they need to actually show they can make the plays needed to win games.
I know that the Chiefs, even diminished, still have players who know how to do that against an unproven, undisciplined team like the Giants.
Pick: Chiefs
Staff pick standings
Who has done the best at picking games across the league so far? It’s Tony DelGenio’s world.
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