Week 2’s late afternoon slate offers up some juicy matchups to dig into at online sportsbooks with one of them going down on the fast track of SoFi Stadium where the Los Angeles Chargers will attempt to keep the Dallas Cowboys out of the win column. LA escaped D.C. with an outright win and cover against the NFL odds in Brandon Staley’s head coaching debut last Sunday, while “America’s Team” dropped a tough last second decision to Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champs in the Thursday night season opener; Dallas will be the more rested of the two teams. That’s a likely reason why the betting market has this one pegged as one of the higher scoring matchups of the week as great the offense looked with Dak Prescott back in the mix.
Watch this regular season Week 2 matchup on Sunday, September 19, 2021, at 4:25 p.m. ET from SoFi Stadium on CBS.
NFL Odds at Bookmaker.eu
Dallas Cowboys +3
Los Angeles Chargers -3
Over/Under 55.5
Odds Analysis
Los Angeles initially hit the board as 3-point favorites with a total of 50.5. The point spread moved to -3.5 briefly before coming back down to -3 with heavy juice attached to the Chargers side of the ledger. The overall ticket count is split right down the middle, but the Bolts have taken 83 percent of the money. The total has seen the most line movement jumping five-points to 55.5 with 91 percent of the tickets and 98 percent of the money expecting scoreboard operators to be extremely busy right from the opening kick.
Player Prop Target
The Chargers are healthy and reinforced along the offensive line. As great the Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots looked in the trenches last week, it was the Bolts’ hogs that really opened my eyes. The addition of Rashawn Slater immediately paid dividends with the rookie not allowing a single pressure against the WFT’s vaunted pass rush over the course of 52 pass-blocking snaps to earn the second-best grade from PFF for rookie linemen. Notice the Bucs listed up above. If Herbert is able to stand in the pocket like a statue with a clean jersey, Keenan Allen is going to eat! Hit the over of LA’s WR1 receiving prop STAT!
Injury Bug
DeMarcus Lawrence broke his foot in practice on Wednesday. The unfortunate injury couldn’t have come at a worse time with the Cowboys set to run up against a rebuilt Chargers offensive line that only conceded a pair of sacks to Chase Young and the Washington Football Team. It’s also possible the unit could be without its second best pass rusher in Randy Gregory who remains on the IR/COVID-19 list. Dallas failed to log a single sack with Lawrence in tow at Tampa Bay even after logging a 24 percent pressure rate. With him now out of the equation, Justin Herbert is going to have a year and a day to survey the field with his hogs only allowing an 18 percent pressure rate against a much better front-seven than the one they’ll attempt to keep from harassing their quarterback in this one. With that, take a hard look at the Bolts going over their team total.
Free ATS Pick
I’m bullish on the Chargers putting a healthy amount of points on the board against an injury riddled defense that just lost its best pass rusher. But will the Cowboys hold up their end of the bargain? I think so. LA was the beneficiary of FitzMagic getting knocked out early. Taylor Heinicke is better than you think, but was forced to come into the game cold off the bench. Dak Prescott just carved the defending champs up for 400+ passing yards and 3 TD passes. This Cowboys offense is a completely different animal than the one LA just tamed out east. The final outcome could all come down to whichever team has the ball last. While square, I can’t avoid hitting the over regardless of all the steam pushing the number five points off the opener. It’s going to be a track meet with Dallas having a shot to pull the upset. If either team goes up by a few scores, live bet the other side as neither will be able to run away and hide.
NFL Pick: Chargers 35, Cowboys 34
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