Legal Sports Betting

Bettors Push Eagles to an 8.5-Point Favorite Against Cowboys

By Joe Tansey

Published: Sep 4th, 2025 · 12:56 PM EDT

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We’re all expecting the Eagles to whoop the Cowboys on Thursday night.

How can you not expect that?

The Birds are up to an 8.5-point favorite at ESPN Bet, it’s Banner Night, and the Cowboys just traded away their best player .

I don’t blame the oddsmakers for elevating the spread from the seven-point opening number because, on paper, Dallas got worse in the time since the NFL schedule was released.

There are just too many holes on the Dallas roster after the Parsons departure.

Who is the dominant edge-rusher that’s going to get after Jalen Hurts? And, maybe more importantly on Thursday night, who exactly is going to run the ball with success for the Cowboys?

Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, and rookie Jaydon Blue make up the Cowboys depth chart. Jalen Hurts has a higher rushing-yard prop than anyone on the Dallas roster. Williams is listed at O/U 34.5. You know how bad the rushing game has to be for the starting running back to be projected to have 35 yards? Saquon Barkley will probably have at least one run longer than that.

So, yeah, Dallas is going to be doing a lot of passing. If you can stomach betting on the Cowboys, or are approaching this from a neutral perspective, I think you have to target at least one of CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, or Jake Ferguson’s over on the receiving yards market.

Personally, I like Pickens to combine with DeVonta Smith, who I wrote about earlier in the week, in any Same Game Parlays for PA sports betting and NJ sports betting.

Pickens and Smith to each have 60+ receiving yards gets you to +291 at ESPN Bet. If you want to get a little crazy, I’d add Ferguson and Dallas Goedert to each have 40+ receiving yards to get the SGP to +1403.

Sure, Lamb is going to get his touches, but he’ll also get the tougher individual matchup. I believe Pickens will be targeted on a few deep balls to help pad his stats. The tight ends should be the No. 3 options in each offense. Forty yards is a reasonable target for both tight ends.

If you’re strictly betting the spread or total, the recent trends suggest a blowout will happen. The Eagles won last year’s two meetings by a combined 75-13. Four of Dallas’ five wins in the rivalry since 2020 were by double digits. There have only been two one-score Birds/Boys games since 2020. The two one-score games were decided by five and six points.

During that span, the winning team’s scored at least 23 points. Seven of the 10 games in that span featured a winning team with a final point total over 30.

Eagles season openers have trended in the higher-scoring direction over the last few years as well. At least 38 points were scored in the last four Eagles Week 1 games, and each of the last three Birds openers have had over 40 points. Just keep that in mind for tonight’s O/U of 48.