Super Bowl Sunday is here, and finally after two weeks of hype and hyperbole, we can get down to football. The New England Patriots, the big bad Patriots making their fifth Super Bowl appearance in 11 years and winners of 10 straight games, are facing the New York Giants, the 9-7 squad who beat the top two seeds in the NFC on the road to get to Indianapolis and who beat the Patriots at Foxboro 13 weeks ago.
This isn't the same matchup as four years ago, when the 10-6 Giants crushed the dreams of the undefeated Patriots with a 17-14 upset win. New York was a double-digit underdog on that day, but in Super Bowl XLVI the Patriots are favored by between two and a half and three points, depending on your source, per our friends at Odds Shark.
The Patriots are 9-6-1 against the spread in their last 16 games, compared to 8-7-1 for the Giants. If one was inclined to net on New York with the points, they might consider betting them on the money line to win straight up. The Giants money line bet opened at +142 (bet $100 to win $142) but is not between +110 and +123.
The over-under of 53.5 points is a number the Giants have only reached once in their last six games. The Patriots conversely have reached that number six times in their last eight games.