NFL Week 5 Vegas spreads, betting odds: Dallas Cowboys are 2 games below .500 … yet nearly 12-point favorites over Giants

It's not too often that one will see a team two games below .500 as a double-digit favorite in the NFL, but that's the case for Week 5 as the Dallas Cowboys have opened at -11.5 on the NFL odds against the visiting New York Giants on Sunday. It appears to be a week chock full of mismatches with four double-digit favorites and just one game with an NFL spread sitting below a field goal.

One has to wonder whether Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Nolan will still be employed by Monday. To be fair, his unit is missing two of its best players in injured linebackers Sean Lee and Leighton Vander Esch due to injury, but that defense is pitiful.

If I had told you Dallas (1-3) would have scored 38 points and rung up 35 first downs and 566 yards in Week 4 against Cleveland, how much would you wager that Dallas won? It didn't, losing 49-38 to fall to 1-3 (then again, it may only take six wins to claim the atrocious NFC East). The Browns rushed for 307 yards against the Cowboys, the most rush yards allowed by Dallas in a game ever. The Cowboys are 0-4 ATS for the first time since that 1989 finished 1-15 SU. 

Dak Prescott threw for a career-high 502 yards in the loss and in his past two has thrown for 974 yards, the most over a two-game span in NFL history. Dallas is 0-2 in those. The Giants actually played solid defensively on Sunday in falling to 0-4 as they lost 17-9 at the Rams, covering as 13.5-point underdogs. Dallas has won and covered the past six against Big Blue.

The Browns, meanwhile, have scored 30 points in three straight games for the first time since 1968. They are 2.5-point home underdogs for Week 5 vs. Indianapolis.

Hey Cowboys fans, it could be worse: You could root for the Detroit Lions. They led the New Orleans Saints – who were missing arguably their best offensive (Michael Thomas) and defensive players (Marshon Lattimore) due to injury – 14-0 barely five minutes in yet lost 35-29 to put even more heat on embattled coach Matt Patricia. The Lions joined the 2011 Vikings as the two clubs in league history to lose three of their first four games after leading by at least 10 points. On the bright side, Detroit won't make it seven this week as the Lions and Packers are the two teams on the bye.

The Thursday night game features Tom Brady's primetime debut as a member of the Bucs as Tampa Bay visits Chicago. The 43-year-old looked in his prime in Sunday's 38-31 comeback win over the Chargers with five touchdown passes to five different receivers – the first time the GOAT ever did that.

Brady became the oldest player in NFL history to throw five TD passes in a game, surpassing Warren Moon, who did it at the age of 40 years, 342 days. Brady did throw a pick-six for the fourth time in his past six games, though (including playoffs). That's two this year, and Brady has never thrown three pick-sixes in a season.

Will the Chargers have top running back Austin Ekeler for next Monday night's game in New Orleans? Probably not as Ekeler left the Bucs loss early with a hamstring. "I'm not sure how bad it is, but it looked pretty bad," Coach Anthony Lynn said afterward of the injury.

With New England visiting Kansas City and Atlanta in Green Bay on Monday night to close Week 4, Week 5 spreads involving the Pats, Chiefs and Falcons could change dramatically if there's a major injury, etc. 

Opening Week 5 NFL odds

• Thursday: Tampa Bay at Chicago (+3)
• Carolina at Atlanta (-4)
• Las Vegas at Kansas City (-12)
• LA Rams at Washington (+9.5)
• Jacksonville at Houston (-6.5)
• Buffalo at Tennessee (-1.5) – game in some jeopardy with Titans' COVID-19 outbreak
• Arizona at NY Jets (+8)
• Philadelphia at Pittsburgh (-7)
• Cincinnati at Baltimore (-13)
• Miami at San Francisco (-8.5)
• Denver at New England (-11)
• NY Giants at Dallas (-11.5)
• Indianapolis at Cleveland (+2.5)
• Minnesota at Seattle (-9.5)
• Monday: LA Chargers at New Orleans (-7.5)
• Bye weeks: Detroit, Green Bay

Who wins every NFL game this week? And which teams cover more than 50 percent of the time? Get picks here from the SportsLine Projection Model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times and ranked in the Top 10 on NFLPickWatch three of the past four years on straight-up NFL picks.