The first NFL Sunday night game of the season figures to be a defensive struggle when the Dallas Cowboys, who many experts have penciled in to play one more home game this season (Super Bowl), pay a visit to Landover to battle the division rival Washington Redskins.
The bookmakers set the NFL odds on this contest at Dallas -3½ on the road, with the betting ‘total’ set at 40.
The reason for the low expectations on the scoreboard are that the Dallas offense was out of sync the entire preseason and may need another game or two to get its timing back, while the Redskins and “new old” friend Donovan McNabb don’t figure to do much against an excellent Dallas defense either.
The most concerning part of the offense has been the bad play of the offensive line. This actually started to surface a bit last season when Romo was sacked 34 times, compared to 20 in 2008. He was sacked five times this preseason while playing a little but less than eight quarters (or two games), so that is not a promising sign.
This could be problem here vs. a Washington Redskins defensive line that recorded 40 sacks last season. It is worth noting though that Andre Carter and Brian Orakpo did most of the damage out of a 4-3 alignment with Albert Haynesworth drawing double teams inside. It is no secret that Haynesworth has been awful this year while the defense is transitioning to a 3-4, so that may have a domino affect on the whole line.
Last year, it was the Redskins that could not keep opposing defensive linemen off of their quarterbacks, but this year, the shoe appears to be on the other foot. The Skins have actually improved their line play with the additions of Jammal Brown, Trent Williams and Artis Hicks, so don’t automatically expect the Cowboys to beat McNabb up physically like they did to Jason Campbell last year.
That said; the Cowboys still have a great defense and Washington by no means figures to march up and down the field, even with their improved offensive line. Also, the lack of a quality running game hurts, as it puts added burdens on McNabb, wide receiver Santana Moss and tight end Chris Cooley.
Betting odds are good though that this will be a tight game either way, as eight of the past 12 meetings between these two squads have been decided by five points or less. These NFC East rivals have also played to some low scorers with the ‘under’ cashing in four of the L/5 meetings.
