The Washington Redskins visit Dallas Cowboys on MNF October 27th
By Ian Palmer
The Washington Redskins head to the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to take on the red-hot Dallas Cowboys in this week’s edition of Monday Night Football on October 27, 2014. The 6-1 Cowboys have won their past six games and will be looking to make it a magnificent seven at the expense of the Redskins. The Cowboys are coming off a 31-21 victory over the New York Giants last weekend while the 2-5 Redskins beat the Tennessee Titans 19-17 to halt a four-game losing skid.
bet365 NFL Betting Line – Redskins vs Cowboys:
- Game Time: Washington (4th – NFCE) at Dallas (1st – NFCE) at AT&T Stadium KICK OFF – 8:30 PM ET
- Point Spread: Washington +10.0 20/23, Dallas -10.0 20/21
- Over/Under: 49.5 points 10/11
- Money Line – To Win: Washington 15/4, Dallas 1/5
- Head to Head: Redskins are 7-1 ATS in their past eight outings
- Match up Summary: The Dallas Cowboys are the NFL’s hottest team with a six-game winning streak on the go. They lost the first game of the season and have been on a roll over since to climb to 6-1. The Cowboys’ last outing was a 31-21 triumph over the New York Giants. They have the league’s best rushing game at 159.7 yards a contest and they’ve rushed for seven TDs. The Redskins were stuck in a four-game losing skid until they beat the Tennessee Titans 19-17 last week to improve to 2-5 on the season. They have a tough task ahead of them when facing Tony Romo, DeMarco Murray and company next Monday. On the bright side, Washington has a pretty good defense with an average of 321.9 total yards against each outing.
Washington Redskins:
- Overall Record: 2-5
- Record Against the Spread (won-lost-push): 2-5-0
- Home Record: 2-2
- Away Record: 0-3
- Over/Under Record: 4-3-0
The Redskins may have stopped the bleeding last week by beating the Titans, but they still looked like a struggling squad. On the bright side, the Redskins have gone 6-1 ATS in their past seven visits to Dallas and are 7-1 ATS in their last eight meetings with them overall. Kirk Cousins started at quarterback for Washington last week and gained just 139 yards while being picked off once and didn’t manage to toss for a TD. He’s been intercepted four times in his past two outings and nine times so far this season, which is the second-most in the league.
Cousins didn’t have it last week and Colt McCoy replaced him at halftime. McCoy threw for a TD and 128 yards to help Washington earn the win. Therefore, it’s unclear if head coach Jay Gruden will start with McCoy or Cousins in Dallas on Monday. McCoy wasn’t perfect though, or at least his offensive line wasn’t as McCoy lost eight yards when he was sacked twice. The Washington defense will have their hands full with the Cowboys’ rushing game and they haven’t been too bad this season. The Redskins are 12th-best in the NFL as they allow just 103.3 rushing yards against them on average per week. Their worst showing of the season was in week five when the Seattle Seahawks touched them up for 225 yards. If they can keep the Cowboys to about 100 rushing yards they’ll have a decent chance, at least to cover the spread.
Dallas Cowboys:
- Overall Record: 6-1
- Record Against the Spread (won-lost-push): 5-2-0
- Home Record: 3-1
- Away Record: 3-0
- Over/Under Record: 4-3-0
The Cowboys’ best performer this season is arguably DeMarco Murray. We’ve seen Murray cause problems for everybody he’s played against this season. He scored a TD and rushed for 128 yards against the Giants last week to set a new league record for the most consecutive 100-yard contests from the start of a season. Along with their running game, the Cowboys’ are also just as good in the air. QB Tony Romo threw for three touchdowns and 279 yards and three TDs in the win over the Giants.
They’ll find that Washington has a decent pass defense as they allow 218.6 yards against them per week in the air. However, Romo has a lot of options when it comes to passing. Tight end Gavin Escobar caught a pair of TD passes last week and Romo also has receivers Jason Witten and Dez Bryant to throw to. Bryant averages 84.3 yards a game and Witten averages 38 yards. The Cowboys may be able to take advantage of the Redskins’ recent third-down defense as it’s been struggling in the past three outings. Dallas has gone 4-1 in their past five home encounters with the Redskins and have won three straight at home overall.