SNF PREVIEW: DALLAS COWBOYS AT LOS ANGELES RAMS

BY ADAM GREENE

Sunday Night Football takes the stage to open Week One with a match up of one of the greatest offensive minds in the NFL and a guy who’s last greatest accomplishment was sticking his whole head into the chocolate fountain at the Golden Corral.

Yes, our Week One official opening day ends with the SNF match up between the Mike McCarthy-led Dallas Cowboys and Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams.

DALLAS COWBOYS AT LOS ANGELES RAMS (+3, O/U: 51.5)

Location: SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, Calif.

Kickoff: Sept. 13, 8:20 p.m.

Broadcast: NBC

THE HISTORY

Thanks to an embarrassing 44-21 blowout last season that likely kept the Rams out of the playoffs, Dallas owns an 18-17 edge in the overall series. While it has not been especially competitive or interesting in the new millennium, back in the 1970s and early 80s, this was a decent rivalry as both teams regularly won their division. They met in the playoffs seven times in that era, twice in the NFC Championship. Last year was the first time McVay has lost to the Cowboys, and that includes a playoff match up on Jan. 12, 2019.

DALLAS COWBOYS (0-0)

Here it is, Mike McCarthy’s dream job and the only thing we can do now is figure out exactly how he’s going to screw it up. He’s been handed a Super Bowl caliber roster and some of the best offensive position players in the sport. What kind of magic can he do with his play design now that he’s drawing it up for Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb? Don’t expect much.

When we look back at the most confusing aspects of an NFL offseason stymied by a global pandemic, the hiring of McCarthy by the Cowboys might turn out to be the craziest thing that occurred.

Separately of the Sunday night game, it’s interesting to note that BetOnline has reported that 52.96% of the bets to win the NFC East are on the Cowboys.

LOS ANGELES RAMS (0-0)

A funny thing happened on the way to writing the Los Angeles Rams’ obituary under head coach Sean McVay. All offseason NFL punditry was down on their former golden boy after the team narrowly missed the playoffs in 2019 in spite of finishing 9-7.

They were in love with the San Francisco 49ers as defending NFC Champions. Enamored with Russell Wilson, likely the second best quarterback in the league behind Patrick Mahomes, and the magic he could perform for the Seattle Seahawks. Enthralled by Kliff Kingsbury’s own offensive playcalling prowess, his young offensive rookie of the year quarterback Kyler Murray and their exciting offseason acquisition of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. And it’s interesting to note that at BetOnline, the Rams have received the fewest bets to win the NFC West (13.73%) of any of the four teams.

Then HBO’s Hard Knocks premierd and everyone started to sober up. This Rams team still had two of the NFL’s 10 best players in Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. They still had one of the best wide receiver/tight end groups in the league with Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, Josh Reynolds, Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett. And that McVay guy, he was still pretty smart.

And the contrast with the Rams, their coaches and players with the Chargers was striking. As the preseason previews started to roll in, suddenly it seemed that LA had averted disaster as the previous doom and gloom of 8-8 and maybe even a sub .500 finish was replaced with Wild Card berths across every publication. Weird how that works.

Of course, I was telling you that a month ago.

THE PICK

I’m bummed that this is Dallas’ first game, because I would love to see Prescott come out and put forth a monster performance and shove it right in Skip Bayless’ plastic mannequin face. I just don’t see it happening against the Rams. I feel like their defense will put on a show and QB Jared Goff begins the bounce back year that puts him into the upper echelon of NFL QBs. Plus, they’re opening their new stadium and aren’t being coached by the guy Aaron Rodgers once said had the lowest football IQ of anyone he’d ever met. Rams 34, Cowboys 23

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