Cowboys Browns Spread

Written by Jack Jones

The Dallas Cowboys will kick off their season of high expectation on Sunday, September 7th at 4:15 PM EST when they head to Cleveland to take on the Browns. Our preview will get you ready for the game or you can skip to the end to read our Cowboys Browns predictions. The early odds show Dallas as a 5.5 point favorite with the total being set at 49.

People are expecting Dallas to come out and make a statement that they are the team to beat in the NFC this season by taking care of business against a pretty good Browns team. Last year Dallas was poised for a run at the Patriots, led by Tony Romo tearing up the Cowboy record books and Terrell Owens playing like the superstart that he is Dallas ended the regular season at 13-3. However, the Giants went into Dallas and stunned the Cowboys, giving the team their sixth straight loss in the playoffs and ending their season prematurely.

Last year Romo was fantastic with franchise records being set in passing yards (he had 4,211) and touchdowns with 36. However, he took a lot of flack after the loss to the Giants since hte week before he took a trip to Mexico with his girlfriend, Jessica Simpson.

This year’s team will be without Julius Jones, who departed to the Seattle Seahawks in the off-season but they will still have the hard-running Marion Barber. Barber will be the primary ball carrier, but the Cowboys will also be able to keep him fresh with the talented Felix Jones, a rookie out of Arkansas, as the no. 2 guy on the depth chart.

Last year’s Cowboys team finished second in the league in scoring when they put up 28.4 ppg. More of the same is expected in week 1 when they take on a Browns team that finished 30th in the league last year.

More big news coming from this game is the return of Adam “Pacman” Jones to the NFL after a one-year suspension by the league. The highly publicized cornerback-returnman was fully reinstated after a 17-month ban for multiple violations of the league’s personal conduct policy. Jones came over to the Cowboys this offseason in a draft-day trade with Tennessee. So far it seems like he is trying to make the most of his second chance, becoming an upstanding citizen while in Dallas.

Cleveland though has other plans coming into this game. The Browns were 10-6 a year ago, which was the best season for the franchise in 14 years. However, they missed out on the playoffs due to losing the tiebreaker, being the only double-digit win team to be left on the outside looking in. This game should be an exciting one because not only is the Cowboys offense electric, but so is the Browns as they put up 25.1 ppg a year ago, good for 8th in the league.

The bad news for that offense though is that several of their stars are dealing with injuries. Pro Bowl quarterback Derek Anderson is dealing with a concussion suffered back on August 18th, wide receiver Braylon Edwards needed stitches in his foot after fellow receiver Donte Stallworth stepped on his foot in practice back on August 9th, and running back Jamal Lewis has a banged up hamstring. Lewis did not practice on Tuesday.

Predicted Score: Cowboys 28, Browns 24

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