The Dallas Cowboys play their first game ever at new Cowboys Stadium on Friday as they host the Tennessee Titans in a game to be televised on Fox. The Titans are already playing their third preseason game since they played in the Hall of Fame game while the Cowboys will be playing their second game. Dallas is a 2.5 point NFL betting favorite with a total of 37.Tennessee comes into this preseason game at 2-0 having won last week 27-20 over Tampa Bay.
The backups played very well last week for the Titans including first round pick Kenny Britt who caught a 37-yard TD. The Cowboys are coming off a 31-10 loss to Oakland. The Dallas starters played well but when the backups came in the team gave up a 7-3 lead. Tony Romo threw a TD pass to Jason Witten before leaving the game. The Dallas starters should play a little longer on Friday in this game, perhaps into the second quarter. That means those that bet on football will get a longer look at Romo, Witten, Marion Barber, Roy Williams, etc.
The Titans and Cowboys have played a lot in the NFL betting preseason dating back to when the Titans were the Houston Oilers. The teams have met 33 times including every year from 1967-1997. Dallas has a 20-13 edge in NFL betting in those games.
Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher believes that going into Dallas and dealing with the hoopla surrounding the new stadium will be good for some of his younger players. “This will be a great experience for us Friday night,” Fisher said. “I think it will be real good preparation for the younger guys to be in that kind of environment because that’s about as close to matching the environment, emotion and intensity as you are going to get in the opener.”
He also said facing the Cowboys’ 4-3 defense will get the team ready for facing Pittsburgh in the season opener. “Dallas’ defense is very stout and we’re going to clearly have to prepare a little bit for the difference in the defensive front, and we will later in the week,” Fisher said.
NFL betting tells us that the Cowboys have a quarterback rotation of Tony Romo followed by Jon Kitna and two rookies, Rudy Carpenter and Stephen McGee. The Titans have Kerry Collins followed by Vince Young, Patrick Ramsey and rookie Alex Mortensen.