Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants Week 1 Pick

            Here comes our second installment of full-season NFL picks. We’ll change up the format a little bit (mostly because I stunk during the second half of last season), so here are the changes you’ll see.

-         I won’t list the pick until the end of each game’s write-up (kind of stupid to spoil it. What was I thinking?)

-         Instead of ranking my confidence scores for each game, I will simply highlight five games that are among my Top-5 picks of the week. People searching for advice on contests similar to the Hilton’s Super Contest will still be able to see the five games I like the most, and I won’t have to expend brainpower deciding which game I feel the third or fourth shakiest about. My wife will vouch for me, the less brainpower I have to use, the better.

-         I’ll list the day, time, network the game is airing on, and what the over/under is for each match-up. Not sure why, but I feel like it.

           Now on to our season-opening contest. The rest of my week 1 picks will be published Friday or Saturday.
 

Dallas Cowboys @ New York Giants

Wednesday, 8:35pm, NBC, O/U 45
            A couple of quick disclaimers before you read the following paragraph. Number one, I’m a diehard Cowboys fan. Number two, I despise the Giants. I will pull hard for Dallas to pull off a major upset tomorrow night, but there is one undeniable fact that can’t be ignored.

THE OPENING NIGHT NFL GAME IS THE QUINTESSENTIAL “NO FUCKING WAY GAME” FOR EVERY ROAD TEAM

            Ever since this annual event became the “Homecoming Game” for the defending Super Bowl champions, no road team has ever won the opening night tilt. Call me a pessimist, but Tony Romo and the Cowboys, whose failings in primetime are comical at this point, are not the team to buck this system. Dallas will score points, and it might even be close at the end, but there’s no way the Giants lose this game (unless you’re playing “Madden 13”. DeMarco Murray ran for 213 on the Giants in my coach career/franchise/whatever EA wants to call their team running mode, and the Dallas D stifled the Giants in a 44-10 beat down. This probably speaks more to my Madden ability than the talent level of the Cowboys, so let’s just move on). If I didn’t have a dog in the fight, I would wager anywhere from 25 to 50% of my gambling funds on the Giants.

GIANTS (-3.5) over Cowboys

Week 1 Top-5 Pick
 

 

(if this isn’t as bold an attempt to use a blog to cast a reverse jinx on the Giants, than I don’t know what is. Go Cowboys!)