Saints move closer to bye with win over Giants

Football Betting Lines

12/24/2006 - East Rutherford, NJ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reggie Bush rushed for a career-high 126 yards with a score, as New Orleans moved one step closer to a first-round bye after a 30-7 win over the fading New York Giants.

Bush recorded the first 100-yard rushing game of his career.

Deuce McAllister added another 108 yards on the ground and a touchdown for the Saints (10-5), who will claim a first-round bye if Philadelphia defeats Dallas on Christmas Day.

Drew Brees threw for 132 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-32 passing, while Marques Colston caught Brees' lone touchdown pass in what was the Saints' fourth win in their last five games.

In what was probably his last game ever at Giants Stadium, 10-year veteran Tiki Barber ran for 71 yards on 16 carries. Barber, who spent all 10 of his seasons with the Giants, has said he plans to retire after the season.

That may be as early as next week as New York's playoff chances took another hit as it fell to 7-8 on the year. Once front runners in the NFC East, the Giants lost for the sixth time in seven games.

Luckily for the Giants, the Atlanta Falcons also lost on Sunday and dropped to 7-8 as well. New York, though, defeated the Falcons back on Week 6. The Giants wrap up their season in Washington while Atlanta travels to Philadelphia.

Atlanta and New York are the front-runners in a pack of teams still alive for the second wild card spot.

Eli Manning completed just nine of his 25 pass attempts for 74 yards. 55 of those yards came on one play, a lone touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in what turned out to be his lone catch of the game.

Burress' touchdown reception was his 10th of the season, the most by a Giants receiver since Earnest Gray hauled in 10 TD passes in 1980.

In fact, New York never ran a play inside New Orleans territory.

The Giants failed to receive a spark from Michael Strahan, who returned to the lineup after missing the last six games with a sprained foot ligament. Strahan had five tackles in the loss.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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