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The one simple reason the Cowboys will beat the Giants on Sunday

Published Dec. 14, 2016 8:36 a.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

You can call him a homer if you want — Shannon Sharpe sure did — but Skip Bayless knows his Dallas Cowboys better than almost anyone. So when he thinks Dak Prescott & Co. are ready to get revenge for their lone loss of the 2016 season, you might want to pay attention.

On Friday's episode of "Undisputed," Skip offered the one simple reason the Cowboys will beat the New York Giants on Sunday, evening the season series at one game each after New York's Week 1 win:

BAYLESS: I'm going to tell you the biggest reason that my Dallas Cowboys are going to win this game at the New York Giants ...

SHARPE: Because you're a homer?

BAYLESS: No. I am a homer, I agree with that. I grew up a homer, starting at age 10, went to my first game. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Got in my blood.

The Dallas Cowboys should have won the first game, and that's why they are going to win this game, and let me explain why.

Remember, Dak Prescott, fourth-round rookie, gets thrown into the fire against a divisional rival on opening day. Degree of difficulty, is that about as high as it gets? And I want to point out, for the record, he had only minimal help that day from one Ezekiel Elliott, who carried 20 times for only 51 yards. That's 2.5 a rush, with a long of eight yards, so don't tell me that Zeke won that game, because Dak should have won that game and played well enough to.

As Skip points out, the Giants did everything they could to take away Dez Bryant — and succeeded — yet the Cowboys still lost by just a point with a rookie quarterback playing in his first game and little production from Elliott. Eleven games later, Zeke is the most decorated rookie running back in Dallas history, and Prescott is playing so well that he held off Tony Romo to remain the Cowboys' starting QB.

In fact, that Week 1 loss was the worst game of Prescott's young career. He completed just 55.6% of his passes for 227 yards with no TDs and no INTs for a season-low quarterback rating of 69.4. For the season, Prescott's averaging 247.8 passing yards per game on a 67.9 completion percentage, with 19 TDs and just two INTs. All in all, there's zero doubt that Prescott, Elliott and the Cowboys in general are a much better team in Week 14 than they were to open the season.

Of course, there's also the other starting quarterback in this game. Although Eli Manning has multiple Super Bowl rings, Skip's not convinced that the Giants QB is elite:

As for the game, Las Vegas agrees with Skip; at the time of this writing, the Westgate Superbook has the Cowboys as 3.5-point favorites over the Giants.

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