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Eagles vs Cowboys
By: Jay Pounds (@jaypoundsnfl)
It is honestly hard to believe it is already Monday Night Football for Week 3 but regardless of if I believe it or not, the end of Week 3 is near. In Week 2 we had the Lions vs Packers for our Monday Night Football game and I had Marquez Valdes-Scantling (MVS) as my Value of the Game. As we all know football is a game of inches. I say this because MVS had a few chances to make big plays and finish as the Value of the Game, but the former MVP Aaron Rodgers missed him on a couple occasions leading Rodgers to apologize to the young speedster after the game. Hey Aaron Rodgers! If you are reading this, I feel I could use an apology as well as I looked horribly wrong with my Value of the Game prediction last Monday night because of those missed opportunities. While I had the position right for Value of the Game, I happened to be looking on the wrong team. Quintez Cephus was the real Value of the Game for Monday Night Football in Week 2 finishing with 4 catches for 63 yards and a touchdown, all on a salary of just $899,822. Enough of last week, let’s move on to why you are all reading this to begin with!
What to Watch For
In this week’s Monday night contest, we have a heated rivalry out of the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys on prime-time television. In this week’s matchup, I am watching for a couple different things but none more important than the Cowboys defense. The Cowboys defense has highly exceeded expectations in this young season, and I am very interested to see how they look against Jalen Hurts and his ability to extend plays outside of the pocket. If the Cowboys come out and have another solid defensive performance, they just may be a playoff squad this season. On the other side of the ball, we have the Eagles being led by the previously mentioned Jalen Hurts, who I will be watching with a close eye later tonight. Hurts struggled with accuracy at times last season and has seemed to be improved in that area of his game thus far this season. Will Hurts continue his improvement as a passer or will he show us he has just had an easy matchup to start the season against the Falcons? The last couple things I will be watching for: how Amari Cooper plays after being banged up last week; how does the Cowboys run game shake out with Tony Pollard continuing to impress; and how each of these offensive lines look after being banged up and missing pieces. And by missing pieces I mean Cowboys’ offensive lineman La’el Collins trying to bribe drug test collectors.
Jay’s Monday Night Prediction
In tonight’s game I think we will see the defenses take somewhat of a backseat as the offenses take turns trading shots with the Eagles ultimately coming out on top.
Eagles 30 | Cowboys 24 |
Over/Under Projections
Cowboys
| Player | Position | Salary | Projected Points | Over/Under |
| Dak Prescott | QB | $40,000,000 | 30.0 | Over |
| Ezekiel Elliott | RB | $15,000,000 | 16.9 | Under |
| Tony Pollard | RB | $796,945 | 9.7 | Over |
| CeeDee Lamb | WR | $3,502,503 | 18.5 | Over |
| Amari Cooper | WR | $20,000,000 | 17.9 | Over |
| Dalton Schultz | TE | $728,090 | 6.9 | Under |
Eagles
| Player | Position | Salary | Projected Points | Over/Under |
| Jalen Hurts | QB | $1,506,292 | 26.9 | Over |
| Miles Sanders | RB | $1,337,544 | 15.8 | Over |
| Kenneth Gainwell | RB | $953,882 | 8.3 | Over |
| DeVonta Smith | WR | $5,035,348 | 14.6 | Over |
| Jalen Reagor | WR | $3,317,669 | 10.0 | Over |
| Dallas Goedert | TE | $1,406,068 | 8.6 | Over |
In this Monday night matchup, I am expecting a tough division game and I do not mean defensive tough. I am expecting to see a few lead changes and the Eagles running game with Hurts, Sanders, and Gainwell proving to be too much in the end. In Week 2, each of these teams struggled to get going offensively with neither scoring over 20 points. Look for both offenses to come out on fire while putting up points rather quickly tonight.
Jay’s Dynasty Owner Games of the Week
Each week I will pick two games that are close in score and will likely be decided during Monday Night Football. If you happen to find yourself in this situation on Sunday night, please get ahold of me on Twitter (@jaypoundsnfl) and I will gladly feature your game here.
Game 1 – League #27446
Horny Toads – Dallas Goedert and Greg Zuerlein in Starting lineup left to play
Looking at Horny Toads starting lineup I would have expected a higher total score but that highlights the importance of having a high scoring quarterback each week. Horny Toads had every single player aside from Tyler Lockett score double digit Dynasty Owner fantasy points this week, yet only has a total of 111.4 Dynasty Owner fantasy points for the week with Dallas Goedert and his kicker yet to go. Ultimately, I don’t see the horny fella pulling off this upset with Pollard being too much in the opposing lineup. If Horny Toads are unable to pull off the victory this week, the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of Kyler Murray and Tyler Lockett.
Fields of Dreams – Tony Pollard in Starting lineup left to play
Fields of Dreams is making his 2nd appearance in the first three weeks of the season in this section. Fields of Dreams should be feeling comfortable heading into tonight’s game with a 9.5-point lead and Tony Pollard yet to go. The Cowboys have been utilizing Pollard much more as of late and I expect it to be no different this week. If Fields of Dreams does lose this matchup in a close game, they will only be able to blame themselves as they left two bench spots open this week (RB and kicker).
Game 2 – League #28278
Turn Down for Watt – Kenneth Gainwell in Starting lineup left to play
Turn Down must be feeling pretty good heading into tonight’s game only needing 6.6 points from Kenneth Gainwell to come away with the win. When looking at the matchup, Turn Down is probably feeling a little lucky with his opponent leaving two Bench spots open this week. Turn Down had a huge performance from Matthew Stafford (41.9 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) and a nice performance from Cordarrelle Patterson (17.2 Dynasty Owner fantasy points) to help put them in position to win on Monday Night Football.
Donkey Punchers – No players left to play
If I were the Donkey Punchers owner, I would be extremely nervous heading into tonight’s game and would not be counting on a victory this week. The Eagles have seemed to love Gainwell thus far and I would imagine we will see him get a solid amount of work again tonight resulting in a loss for Donkey Punchers. If this ends up coming down to just a couple points, Donkey Punchers will only be able to blame themselves for not having enough depth to fill out their Bench leaving two spots open (Tight End and kicker).
I chose both games to highlight the importance of Bench scoring and making sure to set your Bench lineup in Dynasty Owner!
Value of the Game
At last, we have what I am going to assume is everyone’s favorite, the Value of the Game. Last week, I missed bad with Marquez Valdes-Scantling who did absolutely nothing and will look to redeem myself here in Week 3.
In this week’s edition, I will be going with none other than Jalen Hurts, Quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. While I did not think Hurts was horrible last week, he certainly did not play his best and will be looking to bounce back against the Cowboys defense tonight. At a salary of just $1,506,292 Hurts is setup well to hit as tonight’s Value of the Game. As we should all be used to by now, I am expecting Hurts to make big plays with his legs and arm which will help him fend off the likes of CeeDee Lamb as value of the game. I have Hurts in the range of 250 passing yards and 100 rushing yards to finish with the stat line below.
Winner – Jalen Hurts
| Jay’s Projected Stat Line | Passing Attempts | Passing Completions | Passing Yards | Passing TDs | Rushing Attempts | Rushing Yards | Rushing TDs | DOFP |
| Jalen Hurts | 25 | 33 | 242 | 2 | 9 | 68 | 1 | 36.9 |
Be sure to check out my Free Agent Auction article and video that will be released on Tuesday afternoon before Free Agent Auction bids are processed on Wednesday at 5 AM. Don’t forget about Steve Van Tassell’s weekly Tuesday recap article and Friday preview article and video, as well as Matt “The Jerk” Morrison’s Wednesday article and video plus his Thursday Night Football preview article. Don’t forget to check out Dynasty Owner on YouTube!
I hope everyone is having a better start to the season than I am as I have too many shares of Amari Cooper who killed me in Week 2 and DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Brown who have been banged up over the past two weeks. Thank you all for reading this week’s Monday Night Preview and as always good luck on your 2021 Chase for the Ring!