Date: Thursday, November 30th
Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
Channel: PRIME VIDEO (Amazon)
Weather: Perfect...
Cowboys (-9.5) @ Seahawks Cowboys -425; Seahawks +330 46.5 [U]
We do agree there is no “easy schedule” in the NFL, but one of the things I like doing, halfway through, and beyond during the season is determine the quality of a given team is by reviewing who they played.
Most of the time no pattern emerges. The margins between a great, good, or lousy team are so thin most fans accept a bad team beating a supposedly great team as part of the old “any given Sunday” cliche we’ve been parroting for fifty years.
Sometimes patterns do emerge and they fairly often reveal a consensus NFL contender to be an obvious pretender. No other team since 1995 fit the “pretender” description more than the Dallas Cowboys--the always over-hyped, over-covered, overrated Cowboys.
Check out their 2023 season results to date; let’s see if you can spot the same patterns I do:
Dallas 2023 Season Performance :
Week Opponent Rank H/A/N Score
Week 12 Washington 29 Home W 45-10
Week 11 at Carolina 31 Away W 33-10
Week 10 NY Giants 30 Home W 49-17
Week 9 at Philadelphia 6 Away L 23-28
Week 8 LA Rams 17 Home W 43-20
Week 6 at LA Chargers 8 Away W 20-17
Week 5 at San Francisco 1 Away L 10-42
Week 4 New England 28 Home W 38-3
Week 3 at Arizona 32 Away L 16-28
Week 2 NY Jets 24 Home W 30-10
Week 1 at NY Giants 30 Away W 40-0
Their first four games featured three routs versus four low level teams--somehow the QB strapped Cardinals beat the Cowboys.
The next four games result in two losses to the Niners and Philly--elite teams--a home rout of the Big Horns and a road win against the decently talented Chargers.
Their last three games ended as routs against three of the bottom barrel NFL teams.
Patterns..
If you’re one of the worst teams in the league, Dallas will crush you...
...But they are quite capable of losing to a bad team...
If you’re an elite team, the Cowboys can’t hang
I admit, Seattle isn’t elite--and they also can’t hang with the best teams, but they have beaten the Browns and Detroit.
One of the guys I respect most over at vsin.com Is Zachary Cohen who sees Pete Carroll as one of the NFL's best coaches:
Under Carroll, Seattle is 20-5 ATS when coming off two or more losses in a row...
The team also won those games by an average of 6.9 points per game...
The Seahawks are also 9-5 straight-up and 11-3 ATS after scoring 17 or fewer points in their previous two games. Carroll tends to get his offenses out of funks.
Meanwhile the Cowboys are just 3-8 both SU and ATS against NFC West opponents under Mike McCarthy.
I agree with Cohen, Dallas favored by 9.5 is borderline disrespectful to Seattle, and Gino Smith’s elbow--according to him--has fully healed since last week.
We’ll take that 9.5 And watch the Cowboys win by no more than seven, We think the Number is about right--we’ll call the Under.
Cowboys 26
Seahawks 21
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