2013 NFL Week 6 – Sunday Night Football

Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys -5 Total: 52

Sunday, Oct. 13 8:30 EDT TV: NBC
Despite the Redskins poor play coming into this game at Dallas, these NFC East matchups, especially in primetime always seem to be a treat for bettors and fans alike.

Washington is 1-3 on the year with their only victory coming against a Matt Flynn led Oakland team in Week 4; the Redskins are coming off a bye week last week as they face off against the Cowboys. The victory against the Raiders wasn’t dominant by any means, but they did get the job done, winning 24-14.

Robert Griffin III has not looked like the player we saw last year since coming off offseason ACL surgery, but his struggles are not the reason for the Redskins subpar record. The defense has been among the worst in the NFL.

Washington is almost untouched from a health standpoint, and the bye week helped tight end Jordan Reed and running backs Alfred Morris and Roy Helu get some extra rest.

Despite Tony Romo’s record setting performance against the Broncos last week, the Cowboys still lost the game 51-48 against Peyton Manning’s Broncos. He threw for 506 yards and five touchdowns in the win but a late interception set up the Broncos for a game winning field goal to earn the victory.

Dallas has had no issues putting up points this season, but like Washington, they need to shore things up on the defensive side of the ball. The Cowboys rank 28th in total defense and have given up nearly 410 yards a game to opposing offenses.

The Line

This game opened at Dallas -4.5 and has seen some rather lopsided action on Dallas, which has pushed the spread to at least -5 at many books and some have the game listed at -6. The total opened at 53 and has come down slightly to 52 or 52.5 at most shops.

The Play

This game should be interesting and while I do think Dallas will ultimately win the NFC East this year, I like Washington in this game. Even at 1-3, the NFC East is wide open with Philadelphia and Dallas both sporting 2-3 records. Mike Shanahan is an experienced coach, one that will come into this game with an expert gameplan defensively and RG3 has looked better each and every week.

Teams have limited Griffin fairly well in the running game this season and have played him more aggressively on read options. He has finally gotten his downfield stroke going and has a reliable target in Pierre Garcon. Furthermore, Washington’s run game is emerging as a force, Alfred Morris is averaging 5.3 yards a carry and Roy Helu is an excellent third down back and has fit in perfectly spelling Morris.

Washington is going to come out more focused than ever after their bye week. Most teams sitting at 1-3 would be out of the divisional race at this point but the Redskins are not. They have plenty to play for, and they won’t squander the ability to get back into this race.

I’ll take the points with the Redskins on the road wetting with Bovada.lv.