Sunday Night Football Betting Picks: Dallas Cowboys at LA Rams
The first football Sunday comes to a close when the Los Angeles Rams host the Dallas Cowboys. Despite starting the season on the road, the Cowboys are small favorites to win the opening tilt. That said, a pretty friendly promotion skews the lines a bit in the bettor’s favor. Here are a sports betting preview and review of a promotion for Sunday Night Football.
NFL Betting Tips: Use RotoGrinders odds tool to compare NFL lines to look at lines across online sports betting industry and determine which sportsbook is best for your NFL betting picks.
Sunday Night Football Betting Picks — Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Rams
Use our FanDuel Sportsbook promo code to get these odds.
Spread: Dallas Cowboys -3
60% of bets backing Dallas, per VegasInsider.com.
Over/Under: 51.5
89% of bets on the over.
Cowboys vs. Rams Injury Report and Analysis
The Dallas Cowboys open the season in pretty good health with a fresh face. While Dak Prescott awaits a new big-money deal, America’s team drafted CeeDee Lamb to replace Randall Cobb in the Dallas passing attack. Per Rotoworld, CeeDee Lamb will likely line up in all three WR positions as well as feature in jet sweeps and reverses. The Cowboys are poised for a strong season and sit at -121 to win the NFC East on DraftKings Sportsbook.
The Rams also open the season in great health with a relatively similar offense taking the field to complement a strong pass rush on the defensive side. Brandin Cooks departed to Houston and Todd Gurley left for the Falcons but the Rams added a couple of pieces to the offensive side through the draft. Florida State standout, Cam Akers will join a three-headed backfield with Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson to start the season. Van Jefferson joins the receiving corps and seems to have replaced Josh Reynolds in the three-WR sets. Finally, the Rams signed Jalen Ramsey to a five-year, $105 million extension that will keep him in LA until 2025. The Rams might be a sneaky dark horse pick to win the NFC — priced at +1800 to win the conference on DraftKings.
With both teams healthy, the Rams offense will look to begin the new season in a better rhythm. Per Rotogrinders’ Gridiron IQ — a helpful tool for RotoGrinders premium members — the Rams ranked 26th in expected points per rush attempt with only a 45.22% rushing success rate. While the Rams were considered a passing offense, the key to Los Angeles’ success under Sean McVay during their Super Bowl LIII run was the running game powered by Todd Gurley.
The Cowboys come into the 2020 season loaded across the board on offense. Despite featuring Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys blossomed into a passing team last season with a 62.96% passing rate. With the trio of Michael Gallup, Amari Cooper, and now, CeeDee Lamb, Cowboys’ fans should expect plenty of throws from Dak Prescott. Mike McCarthy insists retaining Kellen Moore as the play-call for the offense was crucial — instead, potentially just working on mirroring passing and rushing looks more to make the offense less predictable. In short, expect throws until given other information.
Normally, I would look to get even more granular — especially with line movement — but that will not be necessary with this game. Why? FanDuel Sportsbook is why.
The Sunday Night Football Pick
Admittedly, this game would be pretty tough to pick with a three-point spread and the likely better team on the road. Fortunately, FanDuel is offering its “Spread the Love” promotion for tonight’s game.
For every 5,000 customers that bet on the Los Angeles Rams spread, FanDuel is increasing the line by one point. At the time of this writing, the line sits at +15 but could quite possibly reach more than 20 points before kickoff. FanDuel will give bettors the line that is best at kickoff regardless of when you bet. So, that said, I will take advantage of this charitable promotion and hope the Cowboys don’t completely rout the Rams in Los Angeles. If you can’t bet at FanDuel, I still prefer Rams +3.
The Pick: Los Angeles Rams +15 FanDuel (line moving up due to promotion)
Sunday Night Football Betting Picks — First Touchdown
First touchdown props are a favorite of mine and a fun way to use a very, very minuscule portion of your bankroll. Here are a few of my favorite selections for tonight.
Ezekiel Elliott +550 (FanDuel)
Malcolm Brown +1300 (FanDuel)
Tyler Higbee +2000 (DraftKings)
Pick DFS Props at Monkey Knife Fight, Get $50
What if you don’t live in a state with legal sports betting? You’re in luck. You can still participate in all of the prop fun at Monkey Knife Fight, which is available to users in 31 states. Even better, you’ll get up to a $50 deposit bonus by signing up. Check out our Monkey Knife Fight review for more info.
Here are my picks for one of the “More or Less” games at Monkey Knife Fight for tonight’s matchup.
Jared Goff More than 286.5 Passing Yards
Amari Cooper Less than 5.5 Receptions
Ezekiel Elliott Less than 88.5 Rushing Yards
Michael Gallup More than 68.5 Receiving Yards
Image Credit: USA Today Sports Images