Sport: NFLPick Selection: DEN vs dal
BRONCOS ? Dallas got rolled on the road at San Diego last week as they lost by two touchdowns. Don?t expect a bounce back this week though! That?s because the Cowboys lost each of their preseason road games by big margins last season too! In fact, with their loss to the Chargers in Week One, the ?Boys have lost their last three preseason road games by a combined score of 82-47. That is an average margin of defeat of nearly a dozen points and it?s not a good sign of things to come for Dallas this week. That?s because the Cowboys now must contend with Mike Shanahan and his Broncos. Shanahan is one of those rarities in Preseason NFL annals as he?s a veteran coach who actually cares about winning these ?practice? games! Shanahan and his Broncos came up short by a field goal at Houston in Week One and, keep in mind, the veteran Denver head man came into this season with a 40-24 record in Preseason games. It is quite likely that Shanahan and his Broncos will bounce back at home this week after the road loss last week. Of course, playing at home and laying just a field goal, we?ve got pretty good line value in our favor here too! Fans of historical data will also be happy to know that the Broncos are 17-8 (68%) in their last 25 preseason games versus NFC foes! More historical data favoring the Broncos here, that truly does have meaning because of the way Shanahan operates, is that Shanahan is 6-2 at home when his team is off of a straight-up loss in the preseason. As we noted above, Coach Shanahan wants to win (even in the preseason) and further evidence of that is apparent with this statistic! While Dallas was 13-3 last regular season, the Broncos were just 7-9 and, of course, Denver missed out on the postseason with that poor record. As such, the Broncos are approaching this season with greater hunger and QB Jay Cutler?s health improvement (after finding out he was suffering with diabetes) is giving this entire team ?fresh hope? as they prepare for the 2008 regular season. The Broncos did lose to the Cowboys in preseason last year but that game was at Dallas. After that double digit loss ?turnabout is fair play? and the Broncos return the favor this season with a dominating effort of their own at home! That?s why this one has earned ?BookieKiller? status!
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