New York Giants
vs.
Dallas Cowboys
Week 1
NFL Free Pick
9/11/16
Week 1 is a significant one for the two NFC East rivals. New York and Dallas are both coming off disappointing 2015 seasons. Dallas finished dead last in the division at 4-12. New York finished one spot ahead at 6-10. Needless to say, neither team made the playoffs. The Cowboys were a -3 point home fav until Tony Romo went down with a back injury. Betonline was the first to post a line after that, making the Game a pick em with a total of 47.5
There never seems to be much time away from some form of controversy with these two teams. Much the same in 2016. Tony Romo only played in 4 Games last year due to injury and oNCe again, Romo will be on the sidelines. That didn’t work out so well last season.
There are at least signs of optimism behind him. Rookie quarterback Dak Prescott has been nothing short of sensational in the preseason. The question is: Will he be able to carry the preseason success over to the regular season? Prescott has completed 39 of 50 passes for 454 yards, with 5 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in 3 preseason Games so far.
Another rookie is making headlines in a couple of different forms. Running back Ezekiel Elliott made his preseason debut last night and ran the ball 7 times for 48 yards. Yesterday a TMZ video was also released supposedly showing Elliott in a marijuana shop prior to the Game in Seattle. Speculation is that Elliot will not face any ramifications that would hinder a Week 1 appearaNCe.
Wide receivers Dez Bryant, TerraNCe Williams and Cole Beasley are also joined by a return of tight end Jason Witten. Bottom line is that whoever is quarterback — whether it’s a healthy Romo or Prescott — is going to have plenty of weapons to distribute the ball to.
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On the Giants’ side of things the Eli Manning-Odell Beckham Jr. connection that everyone has grown so ACCustomed to seeing should be as good as ever in 2016. You can make a solid argument that Manning’s 4,436 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes and 14 interceptions ACCounted for his best season as a pro in 2015. Please note that OBJ caught 96 passes for 1,450 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The offense was good last year. What is deceptive is how bad the Giants were as a unit on defense last year. They ranked last in total yards allowed throughout the season. They even ranked third-worst in points per Game allowed at 27.6. They’ll need to be much better to help Manning out. Last year New York was dealing with the whole Jason Pierre-Paul-fireworks fiasco. He was with the team, though not many may have noticed. He only recorded 1 sack on the season. Having JPP showing some signs of getting back to his ability level would be a huge benefit as they try to defeat Dallas in Week 1.
Prediction: There are a lot of moving pieces with this Game. Somehow, some way, Games between these two tend to be closer than anyone would expect, even when one team doesn’t look like they should be able to compete on paper.
Logic tells us to side with the Super Bowl MVP veteran QB over a 4th round draft pick with no regular season NFL experieNCe. Prescott will see (or not see) things he has never seen before. We’ll side with logic. Giants pick over Cowboys