This week, Monday Night Football will be a clash of two teams who are both mired in quarterback controversies. For the Giants, they have been faced with questions all season regarding the poor play of Eli Manning. On the 49ers' side, they are coming off a win in week 9 after rookie Nick Mullens took the starting job when CJ Berthard went down with an injury. Berthard has recovered for this game, but the 49ers have indicated that they are going with the 23-year-old Mullens for Monday's game. He threw 262 yards for three touchdowns in his NFL debut last week.You can find the best football betting odds for this game right here at Skybook.ag.
So, does Eli Manning come back and revive his season and possibly his career? Or is the rookie Mullens on the rise? Your wager is waiting to be made over on our sportsbook, so head on over and make your picks!
Mullens' spectacular debut came against the woeful Raiders -who are possibly the only team worse than the Giants and 94ers this season- and 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan would not commit to playing Mullens over Berthard for the rest of the season, or even the entirety of Monday's game. Should Mullens falter even a little, look for Berthard to go right back in.
If nothing else, the 49ers need to make sure their offense is running on all cylinders because the defense is banged up and vulnerable, allowing opponents an average of 102.8 rushing yards per game. LB Brock Coyle, DB Emmanuel Mosley, and S Adrian Colbert are still out. OLB Reuben Foster and S Jaquiski Tartt are listed as questionable.
For the Giants, the story all last season and this has been the decline of Eli Manning. Since signing a 4-year, $84 million dollar deal in 2015, he has only made the playoffs once. Many fans were angry that the Giants did not draft a QB with their first pick this year, instead of going with RB Saquon Barkley. While Barkley has been impressive all year as the second leading rusher amongst rookies and the 12th leading rusher in the entire league, it has not been enough to offset the year Manning has been having. Currently, he is ranked 36th in the NFL with a 90.9 QB rating.
Despite all of that, Giants Head Coach Pat Shurmur cleared up any doubt earlier this week about who his starter was going to be for Monday.
"(Manning) is starting Monday," Shurmur said to reporters. "With the idea that he is going to get us on a run here and there will be no decisions to be made. Part of the conversation was, 'We trust you, we're going to work with you, and we trust the fact that you are going to get us in there and help us win football games.'"
The good news for the New York Giants is that they are relatively injury-free. This week the only new report is that kick returner Jawill Davis is out with a concussion. LB Alec Ogletree and T Chad Wheeler were participants in the last practice but are still listed as questionable for Monday.
This game will be the 41st played between these two teams, who are locked at a 20-20 record head to head.
