Atlanta Falcons at New York Giants Line

The New York Giants (9-7) are scheduled to host the Atlanta Falcons (10-6) in Sunday’s NFC wild card game.

The Giants are currently listed as a three-point favorite with the total set at 47.

New York punched its playoff ticket in Week 17 with a 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Eli Manning played one of his best games of the season. He completed 24 of 33 throws for 346 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Six completions, including a touchdown toss, went to Victor Cruz, who led the team with 178 receiving yards.

Ahmad Bradshaw led the way on the ground with 57 of the team’s 106 rushing yards and a score.

The Falcons were already in the postseason heading into Week 17 but improved their seeding with a 45-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions loss.

Matt Ryan completed 6 of 9 passes for 106 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions before being rested. Both touchdowns went to Julio Jones, who led the team with 76 receiving yards on four receptions.

The big story was Michael Turner, who rushed for 172 of the team’s 251 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

Turner, who finished the regular season with an NFC-high 1,340 rushing yards, could be the key again Sunday. He leads a rushing attack that helped the Falcons go 7-1 this season when gaining more than 110 yards on the ground.

The Falcons should have an opportunity to run the football against a New York defense ranked 19th against the run with 121.3 yards allowed per game.

The Giants, which rank dead last in the NFL with 89.2 rushing yards per game, will likely only go as far as Manning can take them.

Manning finished fourth in the NFL in passing yards (4,933), sixth in passing touchdowns (29) and seventh in passer rating (92.9).  He could be poised for a big game against an Atlanta defense that ranks 20th in the NFL against the pass with 236.4 yards allowed per contest.

The Giants have won the last three in this series with the most recent being a 34-31 home win on Nov. 22, 2009.

New York may have home-field advantage but that hasn’t meant anything in terms of the point spread in this series. The road team is 8-0 against the spread in the last eight matchups, and the Falcons are 5-0 against the spread in their last five in New York.

As far as the total is concerned, the under has been the play. These two are 5-1-1 under in the last seven meetings.

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