NFL Preview: 2012 Season Opener

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants – 8:30pm on NBC

In 2004, the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots hosted and won the season opener, 27-24 over the Indianapolis Colts. Every year since then, the defending league champs have hosted the NFL Kickoff Game, and those teams are currently 8-0 in these games. This spells good things for the New York Giants, but the Cowboys are looking to add a new, less repetitive page to that history.

Dallas may be without Jason Witten for tonight’s game, but both Miles Austin and Dez Bryant are listed as probably and expected to play. On New York’s side, Ahmad Bradshaw has had no issues in practice and will play, but Hakeem Nicks is listed as questionable.

Last year the Giants became the first team to go 9-7 in the regular season and win the Super Bowl. 9-7 is not a typical record for an NFC East victor, and New York knows they cannot expect to go even to the postseason with a repeat performance.

Dallas, meanwhile, lost their last seven games played against teams that finished 8-8 or better, including two in the final four weeks at the hands of the Giants.

Tony Romo actually had one of the best years of his career statistically in 2011. The Giants have given him constant trouble, though. He has lost his last five starts to the G-Men, and in their two matchups last year, Romo was sacked nearly 10 times. The Cowboys offensive line gave no signs this preseason that this number will go down significantly.

Puff’s Pick: NY Giants over Dallas, 27-16

Remember to listen in to The All-Sports Crew’s broadcast, tonight at 7:00pm. If you live in the College Park area, you should be able to listen to the show on 88.1 FM, but if you try that method and don’t hear us, go online to WMUC Sports and click the big, red ‘Listen Live’ link. We got a lot of positive feedback from our last show and we have every reason to believe that we will be even better this week.

Thanks for reading, and for listening!


2:30pm edit:

I am not usually a big fan of Adam Rank, but he didn't fool around and presented a list of 100 actually interesting facts about the Cowboys/Giants rivalry. Read it on NFL.com!

5 Things You Need to Know – Pre-Season Week 4

This is the final week of the preseason, and also the final week of 5 Things You Need to Know. Next week, heading into the first week of the regular season, I will begin counting down 10 topics.

1.            Only 7 days left before the season starts!

Yes, the regular season starts next Wednesday, not Thursday, as is tradition. The 2012 Democratic National Convention is Thursday, September 6, so the season opener, featuring the Cowboys and Giants in an NFC East showdown in New York, was moved to a day earlier.

2.            NFL transactions’ effects on Fantasy Football

This week tends to be one of the busiest in terms of teams signing and releasing players, understandably. Teams must finalize their 53-man rosters before the week ends, leading to the releases of particularly desirable fantasy players. Don’t jump ship too early, though. I drafted Billy Cundiff as a backup kicker in my fantasy draft. The Ravens released him and I immediately dropped him and went after Justin Tucker. Lucky for me, no one went after Cundiff and when the Redskins released Graham Gano and Neil Rackers to pick up Cundiff, I was able to get him back. You may not be so lucky, so before you drop players like Chris Cooley just because they were released, wait to see what their next move it. Although, if you picked up Terrell Owens in the draft, you should feel safe dropping him now. Even if another team picks him up, he won’t contribute to your season.

3.            Bill Belichick may have lost his mind

The Patriots play the New York Giants this week in their preseason finale, and have announced that many of their starters will get significant playing team in the game. Week 4 of the preseason is traditionally a game where the backups play almost the entire game so the coaches can get one more look at them before making final decisions on who to keep and who to cut. If the Patriots already know for sure most of these decisions, that’s fantastic for them, but this is still a dangerous decision.

The Giants have a sense of pride about playing the Patriots, and no doubt that pride has been injected into the backups. As if the Giants players didn’t have enough reason to give it their best this week – trying to lock down roster spots and all – they get to do so against their hated rival from just outside Boston. Belichick is asking for one of his starters to get hurt. If this turns out the way I envision it, at least all this ridiculous talk about Belichick’s name being added to the Lombardi Trophy should come to an end.

4.            Week 4 starts Today!!

The Patriots game I referenced above is today at 7:00 p.m. and is the start of a slate of three games being played tonight. The Redskins host the Buccaneers in their preseason finale at 7:00 as well, and the Dolphins play in Dallas at 8:30. The other 13 games of this week will all be played tomorrow, beginning at 6:30 with the Falcons and the Jaguars and running all the way into the early morning Friday, as the Cardinals host the Broncos with an 11:00 p.m. EDT start.

5.            My new radio show kicks of Tonight!!

I will be on WMUC College Park Radio, 88.1 FM, with two of my friends tonight from 7-8 p.m. We have been talking with each other about sports for a couple years now and have decided to take it to the radio this year, and tonight will be our first show. If you live in the College Park area, you can tune in on the radio. If you don’t live in the area, go to WMUC Sports and click the big red ‘Listen Live’ button. It will open up in iTunes and you can listen that way right from your computer. While my expertise is undoubtedly pro football, we all bring different interests, knowledge, and opinions to the table and will be talking about a wide range of sports, which should make for an interesting show, especially once we shake out all the cobwebs tonight. So be sure to tune in!

Thank you, as always, for reading. Enjoy the final week of preseason action. I can’t wait to get to my regular season posts next week. And be sure listen to WMUC radio tonight from 7-8 p.m. Follow my Twitter page and Like my Facebook page by finding their respective buttons on the side of this page to keep track of various updates throughout the upcoming football season.