Dallas Cowboys run up 17 penalties vs Denver Broncos: NFL bettors take note

15 August 2022

So it’s not like Stephen A. Smith needs extra publicity, another yes man to affirm his position or any more gasoline pouring on the fire of his Dallas Cowboys, likesay, -based skepticism. But Stephen A.’s latest rant on the Cowboys is one NFL bettors should probably take to heart before, by some miracle, the 2022 Dallas Cowboys become only the second repeat champion of the NFC East (after the 2004 Philadelphia Eagles) since the 2002 realignment.

In game one of the preseason, Mike McCarthy and his charges looked like the same-old, same-old, assessed for a whopping 17 penalties for 129 yards in a 17-7 loss to the Russell Wison-less Denver Bronocs.

And so teed off the Smith:

As fun as Smith’s trolling of the perpetually hapless Cowboys is for NFL fans, the underlying point is salient for NFL bettors. In 2021, Dallas ranked no. 1 in the NFL with 168 total penalties assessed, or 9.33 per game; the Cowboys were also no. 2 overall in penalty yards taken at 1,192 total, or a bit over 66.2 ypg. (Note, however, that the no. 1 overall 49ers played two more games than did the Cowboys.)

Fair enough, the second- through sixth-most penalized teams in 2021 were also playoff teams: the Las Vegas Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. On the other hand, not one of those teams ever experienced anything like this:

Say what you will about preseason games full of third-stringers/practice squad players and NFL referees’ informal toughening-up policy with illegal contact – in the Broncos game, two Cowboys were called for illegal contact on the same play; both penalties were declined – but the truth is the non-disciplinarian coach remains the same.

None of this necessarily means that the Cowboys miss the postseason, with a certain lack of top competition in the NFC and particularly the NFC East. However, this game only accentuates an offseason of net negatives for the Cowboys and a disturbing indication that sameness is the buzzword. On our parts, NFLbets is considering including the Cowboys among the 2021 playoff teams who won’t repeat in ’22 – and the Philadelphia Eagles in the “To Win the NFC East” proposition bet at +160 looks potentially mighty lucrative, too. Because as the man says, “The Cowboys are who we know they are…”