NFL: Cowboys may struggle to justify high points line in Arizona

NFL boff Tom Selwyn (@Tom_Selwyn) returns to cover Monday Night Football's action from Arizona.

Dallas Cowboys @ Arizona Cardinals | Tuesday 26th September 2017, 01:30 | Sky Sports

A tough game to call for this week’s MNF match-up in Arizona – both the Cardinals and Cowboys are 1-1 going into Week 3, but have performed well below the expectations that most people had for them going into this season.

The Cowboys running game – their strength last season – has been particularly underwhelming so far. As a result, QB Dak Prescott has thrown it 89 times already and that is not a successful formula for Dallas.

The Cowboys have not reached 20 points so far this season so I’m not sure why their points line is so high. They have faced two of the league’s better defences, but I’ve seen it as high as 25.5 in places and I don’t think they deserve that sort of line, especially on the road.

So the Cowboys to score Under 25.5 points it is at 11/13 with Bwin.

This could be another tough game to get the run game going too as the Cardinals rank 10th in the league so far, giving up only 79 yards on the ground per-game. Should RB Ezekiel Elliot get bottled up again, I think we’ll see more of Prescott airing the ball out.

Unfortunately for the Cowboys, one of the problem they have faced through the air in the first two weeks could occur again however as their #1 WR Dez Bryant will be facing another top tier CB in Arizona’s Patrick Peterson.

Bryant has only nine receptions on 25 targets after going up against Janoris Jenkins of the Giants and Aqib Talib of the Broncos.

Given the Cardinals have struggled just as much on offense, it’s more than possible that the Cowboys bounce back with a win on Monday night, but their points line is too high, for me.