Dallas (1-0) at Philadelphia (0-1)
When: Sunday, September 20th 2015
Where: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA
Time: 4:25 ET
TV: FOX Radio: XM 82
Reigning league rushing champion DeMarco Murray gets a shot at his former team when he leads the Philadelphia Eagles into Sunday afternoon’s matchup against the visiting Dallas Cowboys in an early-season showdown between bitter NFC East rivals. Murray carried the Cowboys to the division title last season by rushing for 1,845 yards, but he signed with Philadelphia in the offseason. Murray didn’t see a whole lot of action in Monday’s loss in Atlanta. He carried the ball only 8 times for 9 yards, but did score 2 touchdowns. Sam Bradford threw the ball 52 times completing 36 of them for 336 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Bradford’s number one target was second-year man Jordan Matthews who caught 10 balls for 102 yards. All-Pro cornerback Byron Maxwell, who signed with the Eagles in the offseason struggled mightily against Julio Jones. It’s a good thing Dez Bryant isn’t playing for Dallas tonight. The Eagles have not started 0-2 since 2007.
Open an Account at Bovada Sportsbook Now! Sign up at Bovada.lv to get up to a $250 Deposit Bonus and to bet all the Web’s best NFL Football odds and props!
Tony Romo will be without Bryant for a few more weeks, so that means he’ll be going to his other favorite target more often. Jason Witten hauled in 8 catches in last week’s win over the Giants. Dallas came from 10 points down in the 4th quarter to stun the Giants. Romo hit Bryant with :07 left to win it. Joseph Randle received the bulk of work at running back in place of Murray, rushing for 65 yards on 16 carries while adding three catches for 42 yards. Dallas used pretty much a 50/50 split last year with running and passing plays, but last Sunday they threw the ball almost twice as much. This will probably be the trend most of the year now that they don’t have a dominant run game. Dallas has won the past three matchups in Philadelphia by an average of 13.3 points.
This is a must win for the Eagles today. They can’t afford to start 2 games back of the Cowboys this early. I expect them to start better than they did last week in Atlanta. I’m calling for an Eagles win today, but Dallas will cover the spread based on their recent success in Philly.
Pick: Cowboys +5.5
