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Morning Coffee: Cowboys favoured to bounce back in crucial showdown with Giants
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The Dallas Cowboys are already looking up at both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders in the NFC East entering Week 4.
Dak Prescott and company will need to respond with a statement win against a division rival that they have dominated in recent years to ease mounting concerns about their ability to contend this season.
After a promising win over the Cleveland Browns in their opener, the Cowboys were humbled in back-to-back losses to the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens.
The combination of the absence of a consistent run game and a lack of explosive plays in the pass game have led to question marks about an offence that has relied heavily on Prescott and CeeDee Lamb out of the gates.
Meanwhile, their defence ranks 32nd in the NFL with an average of 185.7 rushing yards allowed per game and has given up 72 points combined in back-to-back losses to New Orleans and Baltimore.
Will a quick turnaround trip to face the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football be the ideal spot for Dallas to get back on track with a victory?
Or will Jerry Jones and Cowboys fans be hitting the panic button before the clock strikes midnight tonight?
This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday September 26th, 2024.
Cowboys Favoured To Bounce Back In Crucial Showdown With Giants
The bad news is that the Cowboys have looked like the third-best team in the NFC East through the first three weeks of the season.
The good news is that they still have all six division games in front of them beginning with an opponent that they’ve dominated in recent years tonight in New York.
Prescott has won 12 straight head-to-head meetings against the Giants.
A win tonight would match the second-longest streak by any quarterback versus a single opponent since 1950.
Last season, Dallas outscored New York by a combined 72 points in a pair of victories.
The Cowboys are 6-0 straight up and against the spread against the Giants over the previous three seasons, winning each of those games by at least a touchdown.
The last time they failed to cover the spread against New York was a 23-19 loss in Week 17 of the 2020 season with Andy Dalton at QB in place of an injured Prescott.
If you’re wondering why the spread for tonight’s game isn’t higher, I can tell you right now that it was.
Dallas was a 7.5-point favourite on the lookahead line.
After a pair of ugly losses to the Saints and Ravens, combined with a Giants win over the Browns on Sunday, the Cowboys reopened at -4.5 at FanDuel on Sunday.
The spread for tonight’s game has since been bet back up to Dallas -5.5.
Per the FanDuel traders, 83 per cent of the bets are on the Cowboys to bounce back with a win and cover.
For my FanDuel Best Bet, I’ll lock in Malik Nabers to record 5+ receptions and Devin Singletary to record 50+ rushing yards at even-money.
In case you’ve missed it, the Giants rookie first-round pick is a problem.
The Dallas defence could be in tough to slow him down.
Nabers leads all NFL receivers with 37 targets this season.
He’s averaged 9.0 receptions on 15.0 targets over the past two games.
The good news is that the Giants finally have an elite wide receiver that can open things up on offence and allow Wan’Dale Robinson, Darius Slayton and others a little more room to operate underneath.
The bad news is that if the Giants’ passing game continues to put up decent numbers it might reaffirm the franchise’s commitment to Daniel Jones at quarterback.
I expect Nabers to factor heavily into tonight’s game plan.
I’ll take Nabers to record 5+ receptions as the first leg of my SGP.
I also expect Singletary to factor heavily into tonight’s game plan.
As mentioned, the Cowboys defence ranks 32nd in the NFL against the run.
That should lead to Singletary getting his fair share of touches after he averaged 14.0 carries for 65.7 rush yards through the first three games of the season.
Over the past two weeks, the Dallas defence has allowed a combined 169.0 rushing yards on 29.0 rush attempts per game.
The Saints running backs combined to average 5.5 yards per attempts against them.
The Ravens running backs combined to average 6.1 yards per attempt against them.
Singletary has averaged 4.7 yards per carry this season.
His over/under for tonight’s game is set at 14.5 rushing attempts.
The Cowboys run defence is the worst run defence he has faced this season and if he just hits his average yards per carry on 14 attempts he will finish with 65.8 rushing yards.
I expect Singletary to feature heavily into the Giants’ game plan for Thursday Night Football.
I’ll lock in an SGP with Nabers to register 5+ receptions and Singletary to record 50+ rushing yards at even-money as my FanDuel Best Bet.
Hopefully, those two deliver again tonight on Thursday Night Football.
Have a great day, everyone!