Giants-Cardinals opening odds: Week 1 trouncing doesn’t shift line

The New York Giants are heading into Week 2 reeling from a 40-0 collapse against the Dallas Cowboys, New York’s worst loss by point differential since 1973.

However, it doesn’t appear that oddsmakers are overreacting to Week 1. DraftKings Sportsbooks still lists the Giants as 4.5-point favorites to beat the Arizona Cardinals on the road this Sunday. There’s only four games in Week 2 with larger spreads.

The Giants are -205 moneyline favorites, and the over/under opened at 38.5 points.

The Cardinals are seen as perhaps the weakest team in the NFL, but they were still able to cover the spread in a 20-16 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Arizona capitalized on three first half turnovers to take an early 13-7 lead over Washington. They had a chance to win late in the fourth quarter even while starting Josh Dobbs at quarterback in place of Kyler Murray, who is on the physically unable to perform list.

The Giants showed no such competitiveness against Dallas. They trailed 26-0 at halftime and never showed any signs of life, despite keeping Daniel Jones under center for almost the entire game.

The 4.5-point spread means oddsmakers believe the Giants will perform better against the Cardinals than the Commanders did. Perhaps that’s a bit optimistic, though New York was 8-2 against the spread on the road last year (4-4 overall). We’ll see if they can keep up that high standard.

Depending on their performance Sunday, it’s possible this will be the last game the Giants are favored in for the foreseeable future. Their next four games are all against fellow 2022 playoff teams.