Two years ago, the Dallas Cowboys were off to a bad start and in mid October, during fifth week action against the New York Giants in Dallas, they lost their starting quarterback. Dak Prescott suffered a season ending injury on a day the Cowboy picked up their second win of the season, 27-24, in a game that also marked their fifth straight point spread loss.
The Cowboys would lose their first eight point spread decisions that year, and the campaign came to a somber conclusion with Dallas winning only six games. Following that disappointing year, the Cowboys were perfectly poised to regroup and have a big season with the return of Prescott, and they did. Dallas had the best point spread record in football last season and won the NFC East Division with an impressive dozen wins, twice as many as they earned in 2020.
This year, many figured the Cowboys would build on their success from last season in McCarthy’s third year at the helm. Two things went bad right out of the gate; they got crushed on their home field by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their opener, and lost more than the game that night when quarterback Prescott injured his hand and is still shelved following surgery.
The Cowboys appear motivated to not let what happened two years ago, the team collapsed after Prescott was injured in 2020, and have won back-to-back games with Cooper Rush running the offense. They beat the Bengals as a home underdog and then got a win last Monday night in New Jersey against the Giants. Now they return home as a bet-on home favorite against a division opponent that they beat twice last year. At least they beat Washington twice last year, this time when they visit Dallas they are the Commanders. For two years they were simply the Football Team, and forever prior to those transitions from the name everyone still recognizes, the Redskins.
The Redskins and Cowboys had past battles that befitted their team names. The Cowboys versus the Commanders doesn’t have the same ring. It sounds more like a couple characters out of a Flash Gordon comic book. I think in protest to these three names in four years that Daniel Snyder dropped on us, I’m forever just referring to his team as Washington.
Washington at Dallas.
Okay, now we are on solid ground, I know these two teams. I know Washington has talent and a rock solid head coach in Ron Rivera. I know that Washington has done the opposite of Dallas in the three weeks already played. Washington opened with a win and point spread cover against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that hasn’t lost a game since. They followed that opening victory with back-to-back losses at Detroit and against Philadelphia. Now they come to Dallas as a bet-against road underdog.
The Cowboys got pounced on by Tom Brady and company in their season opener, Tampa Bay winning in Dallas, 19-3. With Rush at quarterback, Dallas has downed the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants the past two weeks, and now look for a third straight victory over a team coming off of two straight losses.
This is for sure, Dallas and Washington will continue the trend of doing the opposite of each other at least through the first four weeks of this regular season. The only question is, will the opposite this week have the Cowboys or Washington winning?
When you know a lot about this game, that question is a lot easier to answer.
Washington.
Qoxhi Picks: Washington Redskins (+3) over Dallas Cowboys