Raiders at Cowboys Spread

Written by Black Widow

The Oakland Raiders are playing in their first Thanksgiving Day game since 1970 Thursday, and they travel to face the Dallas Cowboys who are winners of 5 of their last 6 games. The Raiders come in with some momentum after a stunning 20-17 win over the Bengals Sunday as 10-point underdogs. Dallas is coming off a come-from-behind 7-6 win over the Redskins at home, and they’ve scored just 14 points the last 2 weeks combined. Can they get their offense going in this one? NFL lines say they probably will as they have installed Dallas as 14-point favorites over Oakland and a Total Set of 40 points.

Tony Romo is banged-up after their win over the Redskins last week, but he is likely to play. The same cannot be said for TE Jason Witten, who is a game-time decision to play in this game after spraining his foot in their 7-6 win over Washington. In back-to-back games, the Cowboys have failed to score a point in the first three quarters. They lost to Green Bay, 7-17, the previous week after tacking on a meaningless score late. They didn’t score until there were just over 2 minutes remaining against Washington, but Patrick Crayton’s 10-yard TD catch was far from meaningless as it gave the Cowboys their first lead of the game, one they would never relinquish. Still, the Cowboys own the fifth-ranked offense in the league and also lead the NFC East division by one game. Romo has been brilliant on Thanksgiving, throwing for 10 touchdowns and 2 interceptions en route to a 3-0 record on Turkey Day in his career.

This is the first meeting between these teams in 11 years, and DE Greg Ellis played in Dallas for 11 seasons before being traded to the Raiders in the offseason. Ellis leads Oakland with five sacks this season, and he recorded one last week in their 20-17 upset win over Cincinnati. QB Bruce Gradkowski helped end their 3-game losing streak last week, taking his team on an 80-yard drive that ended in a 29-yard touchdown strike to Louis Murphy with only 33 seconds remaining to tie it at 17-17. They recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Sabastian Janikowski nailed the game-winning field goal. Now, the Raiders come in with momentum and nothing to lose, which could be dangerous for Dallas. Oakland leads the all-time series 6-3 thanks to three straight victories in this head-to-head rivalry, but as I said these teams have not met up since a 13-12 road win for the Raiders in 1998.

Comments

Got something to say?