America loves a weak story, but the betting public hates backup quarterbacks. Despite the Cowboys taking a 2-0 lead with Cooper Rush filling in Dak Prescott, Dallas saw only 16.7 percent bets on them to take out their tier rival, the Washington Commanders on Sunday.
Based on OddsChecker US, Cowboys are the favorite team this weekend (-3) are getting more bets to lose than win. On the surface, it makes sense. Why bet on Rush, a fallback, when you could bet on Carson Wentz, who looked surprisingly good in the first three games in Washington? However, The Commanders are leading 0-2 for the past two weeks, dropping games for Lions and Eagles. In the first half of those games, the Commanders scored a total score zero the point. They came out of the gate slowly and relied on late-game heroes to stay competitive. That’s not exactly a winning strategy. Great, even in the Week 1 win over Jacksonville, Washington still had less than two minutes to start the game.
Furthermore, in recent memory, the Commanders have not performed very well in Dallas. In the previous five away trips, they are 1-4, with their only win coming in Alex Smith’s magical comeback season, where Washington won 7-9. The last time Washington took down a Cowboys team that actually had over .500 though was 2014, when Colt McCoy and Alfred Morris beat the Cowboys 6-1 in extra time. Later that year, Dallas got his revenge, beating Washington at home, 44-17, in Week 17.
Then there are the Saints. QB starting Jameis Winston will most likely not be available for this Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. Journeyman Andy Dalton looks like he’ll be the starter this weekend in London. Unlike Rush and the Cowboys, Dalton’s Saints is not a favorite character; they are 3.5 points behind. After all, the last time Vikings defender Kirk Cousins played in London, he threw 458 yards, the highest of his entire career. You like it?
However, Minnesota’s attack was not as explosive as the team wanted this season. Sure, Week 1 against Green Bay was a solid performance, but since then, Cousins has completed 60% less of his passes and has as many touches as interceptions, while the Vikings are close. like failing to win a 1-1 record. Justin Jefferson was held back by both Darius Slay and Jeff Okudah and has now drawn Marshon Lattimore. Yes, I understand that the Saints were beaten. They won’t have Michael Thomas and Andrus Peat. Alvin Kamara is also a questionable question, but Chris Olave last week showed that he is more than capable of carrying the game without Thomas or Jarvis Landry. The Saints’ defense is also quite healthy. Aside from Marcus Maye, there aren’t any New Orleans defenders listed as “type” on injury report.
That’s where the Saints win the games. Usually it doesn’t matter how good their attack is, when their defense is capable of defending 20 points or less, New Orleans is 7-2 since the beginning of 2021. When the Saints scored more than 20 score, they are 6-4. While horribly attacking is obviously never bad, the key to winning this past season and New Orleans’ turnaround was playing solid defense and not overturning the ball. In their past two games – both losses – the Saints have made eight return runs, including five interceptions. At this point in Dalton’s career, he’s not the safest with the ball. In his past four games, he has thrown eight interceptions – including four of them in a single match. That said, throughout his career, Dalton has been a pretty good ball-controller. I imagine the Saints will take a very conservative game plan with the Red Rifle, and maybe throw in a bit of Taysom Hill for that flexibility at some point. Vikings is currently 24th in quick defense and 19 meters per charge allowed. They’ve also only recovered once all season, so keeping the ball on the ground early in the game was probably their best move.
There’s basically a reason why, even though the Cowboys and Saints both roll with the backup QB, Vegas predicts both teams will be competitive or fair to win their games over the weekend. this. The sharks tend to know their stuff. We’ve seen periods where teams go above .500 with their backup QB quickly. In 2019, The Saints went undefeated with Teddy Bridgewater replacing an injured Drew Brees. That same year, Jaguar won 6-6 with Gardner “Jock Strap King” Minshew, the Steelers won 8-6 with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges, and somehow the Broncos won 4-1 with Drew Lock. I’m not saying both Rush and Dalton are guaranteed to win this weekend, but the fact that so many are knocking out the Cowboys and Saints against two inconsistent teams is a sign that these teams have demonstrated how well they were in the past when placed in similar situations. I understand that you are skeptical about backups, but sometimes they take you by surprise. I wouldn’t be shocked if they surprised us on Sunday.
