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Morning Coffee: Are the Cowboys a legitimate Super Bowl contender?
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The Dallas Cowboys were fast and furious out of the gates this season.
America’s Team opened with back-to-back blowout wins over the New York Giants and New York Jets.
At the time, there was a lot of talk about the Cowboys being a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
Of course, a trip to the desert in Week 3 put a damper on the sentiment, as a 28-16 outright loss to the Arizona Cardinals as an 11.5-point favourite stands as the biggest upset so far this season.
In fact, that result stands as the only instance this season in which a double-digit favourite has lost outright.
Three weeks later, the Cowboys are coming off an ugly 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in a game that was billed as a potential NFC Championship Game preview.
Dallas remains a top-six choice to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel. Still, the Cowboys have yet to produce a signature win.
It’s still early, but if they fall to 3-3 with a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football, it might seem like a reach to put Dallas in the championship conversation.
Are the Cowboys a legitimate Super Bowl contender? Buckle up, because it’s almost showtime in L.A.
This is the Morning Coffee for Monday, Oct. 16, 2023.
Are the Cowboys a legitimate Super Bowl contender?
According to FanDuel, the Cowboys are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Only five NFL teams have shorter odds to win it all.
The San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins are the top five choices to win it all at FanDuel this morning.
Those are the five teams with shorter odds to win the Super Bowl than Dallas.
Tonight, the Cowboys get another opportunity to prove that they deserve to be ranked among that elite group of contending teams.
As far as I’m concerned, they haven’t proven anything yet.
Dallas is 3-2 heading into tonight’s showdown in L.A. The three wins have come against teams that are currently projected to miss the playoffs.
The Giants and New England Patriots have combined to go 2-10 straight up this season.
The Jets have turned a corner with back-to-back wins to improve to 3-3, but they didn’t have much going at all when the Cowboys beat them 30-10 in Zach Wilson’s first start of the season back in Week 2.
Dallas has been excellent off a loss under head coach Mike McCarthy.
The Cowboys are 9-1 straight up following a loss since the start of 2021 – the best such record in the NFL over that span. Last season, Dallas went a perfect 5-0 against the spread off a loss.
The Cowboys are currently -1.5 at FanDuel. If you like Dallas to win tonight, you might as well bet them at -126 on the money line at FanDuel.
Meanwhile, tonight’s game is a very interesting spot for a Chargers team coming off a bye week following back-to-back wins over the Minnesota Vikings and Las Vegas Raiders to improve to 2-2.
Justin Herbert and company should benefit from the added rest, with running back Austin Ekeler set to play for the first time since Week 1.
L.A. will host the Cowboys tonight before travelling to face the rival Chiefs next Sunday.
If the Chargers win tonight, they’ll be in a comfortable position at 3-2 with a very manageable schedule the rest of the way.
If they lose and fall to 2-3 with a trip to Kansas City on deck, the outlook could look a lot different for L.A.
Speaking of outlooks, I went 4-2 with all of the plays that I gave out for Sunday’s NFL games.
My outlook would have been much different if it wasn’t for a couple of notable injuries that prevented me from completing a 6-0 sweep.
The FanDuel Best Bets in this column are 8-2 in the month of October.
It’s time to get back to work and lock in another FanDuel Best Bet for Monday Night Football.
A FanDuel Best Bet for Monday Night Football
I’ve already established that I’m not sold on the Cowboys as a Super Bowl contender.
However, tonight’s game isn’t the Super Bowl, and no team has been better off a loss than Dallas over the past two seasons.
If they even want to be in the conversation as a contender, the Cowboys better have a response tonight.
In order to have a chance, Dallas needs Prescott to avoid the types of mistakes that have hurt the team in their losses.
Prescott’s 19 interceptions since the start of 2022 were tied with Josh Allen for the most over that span entering this week’s games.
The good news is that Prescott will have his full complement of weapons at his disposal again tonight, including CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, Michael Gallup, Tony Pollard and emerging tight end Jake Ferguson.
A fourth-round pick in 2022, Ferguson has averaged 4.5 receptions for 41.0 yards on 5.3 targets per game over the past four weeks. Only Lamb has a higher average targets per game and receptions per game over that span.
Ferguson has 28-plus receiving yards in three straight games.
The Chargers have only faced one tough matchup at the tight end position this season, which was back in Week 3 when T.J. Hockenson torched them for 78 yards on eight catches.
Hopefully, we can close out Week 6 with another FanDuel Best Bet winner.