Giants vs. Cowboys Week 14 NFL Pointspread Pick
12/11/11
The struggling Giants (6-6) look to snap their Four Game losing streak against the Cowboys (7-4) at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas. New York battled the unbeaten Green Bay Packers to the wire before losing a 38-35. The Giant defense continues to be a proverbial thorn in the side ranking 28th in the league. Opposing quarterbacks are throwing for over 250 yards against them. At times, the Giant cornerbacks have looked befuddled. The injury bug has hit the team all season. Last week against Green Bay strong safety Kenny Phillips sprained his knee. The Giants are hopeful that he will return before the end of the season. Free safety Antrel Rolle continues to be a tackling MAChine with 74 for the season.
Offensively the Giants are doing pretty well. Quarterback Eli Manning has completed 62 percent passes with 23 of those passes going for touchdowns. Running backs Ahmad Bradshaw, and Brandon Jacobs have lacked consisteNCy all year. Wide receivers Victor Cruz and Hakeen Nicks are both having excellent seasons. Cruz has caught 62 passes and scored seven times. Nicks is averaging 15 yards a catch. Manning continues to target Jake Ballard and his 16 yards per catch.
The Cowboys expected to beat the lowly Cardinals last week but instead lost in overtime. The team has been enGAging in some real nail biters. They nipped Miami 20-19 and snuck past Washington 27-24. The Cowboy defense has played solidly this season. Sack leader DeMarcus Webb sets the pace with his 15 sacks. The play of Inside linebacker Sean Lee has been consistent. Lee leads the team with 78 tackles. Free safety Gerald Sensabaugh has contributed 60 tackles.
Quarterback Tony Romo and the rest of the offense have done pretty well this season. Romo has completed 65 percent of his throws with 22 touchdowns. Rookie runner Demarco Murray has GAined almost 900 yards on the ground. Tight end Jason Witten is Romo’s go to guy. Explosive Dez Bryant has 46 catches and seven scores. Receiver Miles Austin returns to the field this weekend after injuring his hamstring last month.
The Cowboys want to start another winning streak while the Giants want to end a losing one. Last year the Giants waltzed into town and won a shootout 41-35. The Cowboys are 5-1 at home this season.
Bettorsworld Bottom Line – As big of a Game as most folks made the Packers/Giants out to be last week, it really wasn’t. It was almost meaningless as far as the Giants post season hopes go. That’s because the Giants control their own destiny in the NFC East. They still have two Games to play against the division leading Cowboys, the first one, this week. If the Giants win the rest of their Games, they are in. Even if the Giants only beat Dallas twice, and lose their other two remaining Games, they’d still get in if the Cowboys lose one of their other remaining Games to the Bucs or Eagles.
Unfortunately, the Giants have been decimated by injuries. Offensively, they have no running Game and defensively they can’t stop the passing Game. They proved they can play with the best last week, going toe to toe with the Packers but at the end of the day, a loss is a loss.
The Cowboys aren’t exactly dominant though. In fact, in their 7 wins, only 2 were by wide margins (Rams and Bills) and 1 was by 10 points (Seattle). Their other 4 wins were by a field goal or less. They have lost 5 of their last 6 against the spread which suggests the oddsmakers have been showing the Cowboys a little too much respect. As banged up as the Giants are coming into this “playoff Game”, we still give them a chance here. Giants +3.5