Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins Odds

The Washington Redskins (9-6, 4-3 home) welcome the Dallas Cowboys (8-7, 4-3 away) to FedEx Field this Sunday in a huge Week 17 showdown. This is easily the biggest game of the week with both team’s playoff lives at stake. The winner will capture the NFC East title, while the loser will likely be watching the playoffs from their homes. This contest will be nationally televised on NBC at 8:20 EST Sunday night. Oddmakers have installed Washington as a 3-point favorite over Dallas with a total set of 48.5 points.

Why Washington Covers

The Redskins are one of the hottest teams in the league right now. They have won six straight games while going a perfect 6-0 against the spread in the process. After a 3-6 start, this team is simply on a mission to make the playoffs and win the NFC East. This is certainly a team that nobody wants to play right now.

Dallas had its momentum stopped with a 31-34 home loss to the New Orleans Saints last week in a game it really thought it had to win to make the playoffs. That was just its second loss in seven games with the other coming at home to the Redskins by a final of 31-38 on Thanksgiving Day.

Washington really dominated that first meeting with the Cowboys in a game that was much more of a blowout than the final score would indicate. This game was essentially over at halftime as the Redskins took a 28-3 lead into intermission. They kind of just coasted the rest of the way, allowing the Cowboys to make it respectable in garbage time with the outcome already decided.

The Redskins are 15-2 against the spread vs. excellent passing teams averaging 260 or more passing yards/game after 8+ games since 1992. Washington is 19-4 against the spread versus poor rushing teams that average less than 90 rushing yards/game in the second half of the season since 1992. The Redskins are 5-0 against the spread in their last 5 vs. NFC East opponents, while the Cowboys are just 2-9 against the spread in their last 11 vs. division foes.

Why Dallas Covers

The Cowboys have new life after losing to the New Orleans Saints last week. They certainly felt terrible after that loss, but once the games played out last Sunday, they realized they still had all of their goals in front of them. A win over the Redskins and the Cowboys will be the NFC East champs and host a first-round home game in the playoffs.

Tony Romo is playing the best football of his career while single-handedly keeping the Cowboys afloat. They have won five of their last seven games overall with Romo averaging 327.3 passing yards per game over this span. He has also thrown 16 touchdowns to only three interceptions in the process. You would be hard-pressed to find a signal caller playing better right now.

Thanks to Romo, Dallas ranks 3rd in the league in passing offense at 302.2 yards per game. Romo and company should have their way with a suspect Washington secondary, which is the weakness of its team. The Redskins rank 29th in the league against the pass while allowing an average of 287.7 passing yards per game.

This play falls into a system that is 42-17 (71.2%) ATS since 1983. It tells us to bet on all teams where the line is +3 to -3 (DALLAS) – revenging a loss against opponent, off an extremely close home loss by 3 points or less.

About the Author: Jack Jones has been ranked in the Top-5 on the Overall Leaderboard for almost all of 2012 here at Betfirms. He has climbed as high as No. 2 while competing against roughly 80 of the best handicappers in the world. He finished as the No. 6 Ranked Basketball Handicapper from 2011-12, which combines pro and college hoops. His $1,000/game basketball players cashed in $22,310 last season. Head on over to Jack's premium pick page to see what he has in store for tonight!