- Dallas added Mike Pettine, 60, as a senior defensive assistant and sent coordinator Christian Parker up to the coaches’ booth.
- Dallas is a 1.5-point underdog at Green Bay, priced +105, with a 53-point total that is second highest in Week 6.
- The Cowboys defense allows 0.12 expected points per play, 31st in the NFL, and 0.38 per pass play, the league’s worst.
- Green Bay is 3-2 with a minus-8 point differential and the NFL’s weakest rushing attack by EPA per play.
FRISCO, Texas – Mike Pettine, the former Cleveland Browns head coach, joined the Dallas Cowboys on Monday as a senior defensive assistant, and defensive coordinator Christian Parker will call games from the coaches’ booth, two changes to a Cowboys defense that ranks 31st in the NFL in expected points allowed per play. Dallas visits the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night as a 1.5-point underdog, priced +105 on the moneyline, with the total at 53.
Pettine Arrives After A Loss To A Winless Team
Coach Brian Schottenheimer announced the Pettine hire Monday, four days after the 24-16 loss Thursday to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had started 0-4, and told reporters the move would have happened whatever that result. Pettine ran the defenses of the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills and Packers and coached the Browns for two seasons.
Parker’s first NFL job, a 2019 quality-control post in Green Bay, came from Pettine, and the two coaches on either side of him now overlapped on the Jets’ staff from 2009 to 2011, the team said.
Parker, in his first season running a defense, will move to the booth to make the calls, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan. Jones said the hire does not mean Parker is “overwhelmed” and described Pettine’s job as scheme work rather than technique coaching. The defense gives up 395.4 yards a game, 31st in the NFL, and 37 explosive plays, tied for the fourth most, the team’s website reported.
Dallas Is Fourth On Offense And 31st On Defense
The Cowboys offense produces 0.13 expected points added (EPA) per play, fourth in the NFL, and succeeds on 52.8 percent of its snaps, third. The defense gives back 0.12 per play, second worst, and 0.38 on pass plays, worst of all 32 teams. The league’s best defense, Minnesota’s, allows minus 0.21.
Offense minus defense nets Dallas to plus 0.01 per play, 14th, and Green Bay to minus 0.01, 19th. That fits a Cowboys team that has outscored opponents 138-136, and a 1.5-point spread at Lambeau Field that rates Dallas about even with the Packers on a neutral field. Three of Dallas’s five opponents scored 28 or more. Five games is the low end of what EPA needs to settle, and none of it is adjusted for opponent.
Green Bay Can Pass And Cannot Run
The Packers’ rushing offense is the NFL’s weakest at minus 0.33 EPA per rush, which leaves the passing game as the way to move the ball. That unit is 12th at plus 0.14 per pass play, and quarterback Jordan Love went 25 of 31 for 367 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday’s 31-7 win over the Chicago Bears. It now meets the league’s worst pass defense.
Green Bay’s record flatters it. Two of its three wins came by three points, 20-17 in overtime at the New York Jets and 17-14 at Tampa Bay, and the Packers have been outscored 112-104.
The 53-Point Total Asks Green Bay For About 27
Sunday night’s full board is posted at Texas online sportsbooks.
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Cowboys moneyline | +105 |
| Packers moneyline | -125 |
| Cowboys spread | +1.5 (-110) |
| Packers spread | -1.5 (-110) |
| Total points | 53 (over -110, under -110) |
The spread and total work out to about 27 points for Green Bay and 26 for Dallas. The Packers average 20.8 points and have topped 27 once, against Chicago. The Cowboys average 27.6, seventh in the NFL, so the board asks them for slightly less than usual.
An Over ticket is a bet that Green Bay’s best game of the season repeats against Dallas, and a Cowboys ticket is a bet that the fourth-ranked offense keeps pace with it. Dallas also comes off 10 days between games, three more than Green Bay.
Texas has no state-licensed sportsbook, so Texas residents can’t bet on the Cowboys at a regulated book at home. The Texas gambling sites that take the action operate outside state oversight.
Parsons, Hargrave And Cooper Are Out For Green Bay
Micah Parsons remains on the physically-unable-to-perform list with the torn ACL he suffered in December, the Packers have not opened his 21-day practice window, and the Cowboys’ website reported he will miss the game. Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave tore an Achilles tendon late in the Chicago game and is out for the season, and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper is on injured reserve with the same injury.
Green Bay’s defense still gives up about 308 yards a game, eighth fewest, and its 14 sacks tie for seventh, the Cowboys’ website noted. Dak Prescott meets that unit a week after Tampa Bay sent extra rushers at him on most snaps and held Dallas to 16 points.
DeMarvion Overshown, the linebacker who has missed four games since straining a hamstring in the opener, worked individual drills with the other linebackers Monday, and Schottenheimer said his status is still to be determined. Dallas practices Wednesday through Friday, and kickoff is 8:20 p.m. Eastern (7:20 Central) Sunday on NBC.