NFL Week 16 Betting – Division-leading Cowboys, Colts Meet in Big D

Indianapolis Colts at Dallas Cowboys (-3, 55 o/u)

The talk this week regarding the matchup between the Indianapolis Colts (10-4, 4-2 away) at the Dallas Cowboys (10-4, 3-4 home) isn’t about the marquee QB matchup between Andrew Luck and Tony Romo. Instead, it’s about the NFL’s leading rusher, DeMarco Murray, or more specifically, his broken left hand.

Murray had surgery on the hand earlier in the week and his status for Sunday remains unclear.  Obviously, coach Jason Garrett is hoping for the best, “As we go, we’ll just see how functional he is. How he can hold the ball, hold it under duress, catch the ball, block, do all the things necessary to be ready to play. We’ll try to ease him into drills and practice as the week goes on and just see where he is.”

If Murray doesn’t play, Lance Dunbar and Joseph Randle will split the carries.

Said Cowboys center Travis Frederick, “It’s not as different as you might think and even if it is different, it doesn’t change our jobs very much.”

What could be different for the Cowboys is if injured right tackle Doug Free and right guard Zack Martin aren’t on the field. This has to be the worst nightmare for Dallas fans, who are used to December collapses. As it stands now, if the Philadelphia Eagles win both of their remaining games, the Cowboys must follow suit. One misstep would open the door for the Eagles.

As for the Colts, they’ve already clinched the AFC South. The only way Indianapolis can earn a first round bye is by winning out and having either New England or Denver lose a game.

It remains to be seen if the Colts will start resting players – such as veteran receiver Reggie Wayne – for the playoffs.

“We’ve talked about a lot of guys,” said Colts head coach Chuck Pagano. “He’s one of the guys that you could consider but we’ll look at him, we’ll look at guys that are on the injury list that are dealing with nagging injuries and if it’s best for them and best for the team then we’ll do obviously what’s right in all those cases.”

Considering plenty of variables remain regarding who will and won’t be playing, the right play in this game is the under (55).

(Photo credit: Bigcats lair [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped from its original.)