2-Dime NFL P.O.D. Cowboys vs. Raiders

[Pick Bot]

Take Raiders @ -1 2-Dime POD
Football season is here! I'm so excited and even more excited for the college football season where I picked 64% winners! Tonight we are picking up the late game as the Oakland Raiders will have something to prove in the 09 season and open up against the Cowboys and Wade Phillips. My strategy in pre-season that has worked well before is looking at coaches tendencies and paying attention to who is going to play and how much they are going to play. More often than not the 2nd half of these games becomes a joke with 3rd and 4th string players who won't even make this team. Sometimes 1st halfs can be even better bets, but for tonight we will stick to the full game and go with the Raiders.

Cowboys are going to be very thin in their secondary which will give the Raiders a perfect opportunity to see what they have with Russell. I also like the attack the Raiders have on the ground with McFadden, Fargas, and Bush. I expect the Raiders to be able to score some points here as they will be forcing the linebackers to go back and cover all day long which will allow the Raiders to pick up some good chunks with their ground game.

As I mentioned the 2nd half will be played by 2nd 3rd and 4th string QB's this is especially true as they will start two rookies for the entire 2nd half in Stephen McGee and Rudy Carpenter against the depth of the Raiders secondary I like. Keep in mind the Cowboy have not won a road pre-season game under Wade Phillips as they are 0-4 SU + ATS by a total of 45 points. Raiders on the other hand are 5-1 SU + ATS in their last 6 home pre-season games and clearly are going to play this game to win as they need to establish a winning tradition that they do not have.