Hittin' The Nuts - SquirrelPatrol's NFL DFS Lineup Advice for Sunday Night Football (Cowboys vs. 49ers)
Want to hit the nuts and take down 1st place in these massive contests posted by FanDuel and DraftKings? Who better to walk you through their favorite NFL DFS picks than SquirrelPatrol! Undoubtedly one of the best DFS players in the game, SquirrelPatrol has accumulated 100+ Live Final seats, took 2nd place in the 2023 DraftKings Fantasy Baseball World Championship for a $600,000 prize, and most recently, took down the NFL Milly Maker in Week 2 of last season.
The Week 8 Sunday Night game features an NFC showdown between the Cowboys and 49ers in California, with San Francisco favored by 4.5 points in a game with a 47-point total. Both teams came into the season with playoff and championship expectations, but neither team is currently over .500, with Dallas sitting at 3-3 and the 49ers at 3-4 (although with a +22 point differential). The Cowboys offense has sputtered, ranking 20th in scoring this year after leading the league in points per game last season. Injuries for the 49ers have piled up, with Christian McCaffrey missing the entire season so far. Brandon Aiyuk is now out for the rest of the year, and Jauan Jennings is expected to miss this game with a groin injury.
For this game, in addition to missing McCaffrey and Aiyuk, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel have both been questionable for the 49ers coming into Sunday. I’m assuming Kittle and Samuel are both in, but you’ll want to be sure to follow the RotoGrinders NFL starting lineups page as inactives hit for the latest details; it wouldn’t be the first time San Francisco surprised us this season with major changes regarding inactives. Dallas comes into the game relatively healthy, with Brandin Cooks still on IR being their biggest injury news. Don’t forget to use our NFL DFS optimizer, LineupHQ. Whether you’re a hand builder or an MME player, it’s the perfect tool to utilize.
Let’s sort through the slate and figure out what to do with our DFS lineups.
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Cowboys vs. 49ers NFL DFS Lineup Advice
Primetime Game History
This is third primetime game this season for San Francisco, and they picked up victories in their first two. In Week 1 they opened Monday Night Football with a win over the Jets in the game where we first learned McCaffrey would be missing some time. With McCaffrey a surprise inactive, Deebo Samuel (16.9%) and Jordan Mason (15.0%) ended up as the 2nd-most and 3rd-most popular CPTs in the DraftKings large-field contest. The 49ers won 32-19, but it was Jets WR Allen Lazard and his garbage time 2nd touchdown that ended up as the winning CPT at just 1.4% ownership. Deebo Samuel, Brock Purdy, and kicker Jake Moody appeared for San Francisco in FLEX spots.
In Week 6, San Francisco took on Seattle on Thursday Night Football and again were able to pull out a primetime win. Mason (11.5%) and Samuel (11.0%) were the most popular CPT choices in the biggest DraftKings Showdown contest, with George Kittle a close 4th (10.2%). Samuel was the CPT in the winning lineup, joined by Brock Purdy, Kittle, and kicker Matthew Wright, all in a lineup that didn’t feature any players below 15.5% ownership and was duplicated 105 times.
This is also the third primetime game for the Cowboys this season, with Dallas also winning both of their previous games this season under the lights. In Week 4, the Cowboys faced the Giants on Thursday Night Football, picking up a 20-15 win. CeeDee Lamb was the most popular CPT choice in the large-field DraftKings contest, with 17.4% ownership, while Dak Prescott was third with 14.1% ownership. As the score might indicate, it was an odd game, and the winning Showdown lineup featured Giants kicker Greg Joseph in the CPT spot at 0.3% ownership, with Lamb, Prescott, and Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey in FLEX spots.
The following week, the Cowboys played the Steelers on Sunday Night Football and again picked up a low-scoring win with a 20-17 victory. With Dallas coming into the game as 2.5-point road underdogs, the only Dallas player who ranked in the top 4 in CPT ownership in the big DraftKings contest was CeeDee Lamb at 13.3%. It was another contest where a funky low-owned CPT ruled the day, as the winning lineup featured the Steelers D/ST unit in the top spot at 3.2% CPT ownership, with Lamb, TE Jake Ferguson, and WR Jalen Brooks representing Dallas in the FLEX spots.
How I Plan to Beat the Field
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