Cowboys Giants Odds

Written by Jack Jones

In one of the biggest games of Week 17 that means something to both teams, the Dallas Cowboys travel to face the New York Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. The winner of this game wins the NFC East and gets to host a first-round playoff game. The loser goes home and watches from their televisions, it’s as simple as that. Dallas blew a 12-point lead over the final four minutes to lose 37-34 at home to the New York Giants in their first meeting. That was the third straight win for the road team in this series.

Taking a look at the NFL odds for Week 17, I find a spread of New York -3 over Dallas and a total set of 46 points.

New York

The Giants would love nothing more than to beat their archrivals for a chance to go to the playoffs for the first time in three years. They have had late-season collapses each of the past two, and this would count as another one if they were unable to take care of business at home Sunday. New York (8-7, 3-4 home) has struggled at MetLife Stadium this season.

Eli Manning threw for 400 yards and a pair of touchdowns over the final 3:14 to rally his team from a 34-22 deficit to beat the Cowboys in their first meeting. While Manning wasn’t all that sharp last week, the Giants were able to beat the New York Jets 29-14. Manning finished just 9 of 27 for 225 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The defense was the key as they forced three turnovers while also scoring two points on a safety of Mark Sanchez.

Manning has been coming up big in the fourth quarter all season. He has the league’s second-best fourth quarter passer rating (107.5), and he has thrown for a career-high 4,587 yards and 26 touchdowns this season. Without him, who knows where the Giants would be as their defense hasn’t been up to par this year. New York ranks 28th in the NFL in total defense (381.5 yards/game).

Victor Cruz has emerged as Manning’s go-to receiver. He caught a 99-yard touchdown last week, and he ranks third in the league with 1,358 yards to go along with 76 receptions and eight touchdowns. Hakeem Nicks is having a solid year as well, catching 71 balls for 1,116 yards and six scores.

Dallas

The Cowboys simply haven’t been able to step up big in crunch time this season, which is why they are in this position. Dallas (8-7, 3-4 home) has time and time again blown late leads in the fourth quarter to lose games. The fact that they still have a chance to make the playoffs is a miracle in itself

All of the talk coming into this game has been about quarterback Tony Romo, who injured his hand last week in a 20-7 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. His throwing hand was visibly swollen, but fortunately nothing was broken. Head coach Jason Garrett believes Romo will be able to start this week provided the swelling goes down. He threw passes in practice on Wednesday.

While he gets a lot of criticism for his play late in games, there’s no denying that Romo has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league this year. He is completing 65.4 percent of his passes for 3,895 yards with 29 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. Romo has also posted a career-best 102.2 passer rating, which is the fourth-best mark among quarterbacks.

Romo threw for 321 yards and four touchdowns in their first meeting with the Giants. He did his part, but the defense could not come up with a stop when they needed to. Dallas desperately needs someone like Pro Bowler DeMarcus Ware to step up and make a play late after not sacking Manning once in their first meeting. Ware is tied for second in the league with 18 sacks.

Betting Trends

The Cowboys are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games as an underdog, but just 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games vs. NFC East foes.

The Giants are 0-6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a home favorite of 0.5-3.0, and 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 home games overall.

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