{"id":144,"date":"2012-09-05T13:38:12","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T13:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=144"},"modified":"2012-09-07T19:34:35","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T19:34:35","slug":"happy-opening-kickoff-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Happy Opening Kickoff Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Machine hasn\u2019t been this excited since Draft Weekend!\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s game is a microcosm of the 2012 season; it\u2019s chock-full of storylines, drama, hope, rivalry, despair and Tony Romo!\u00a0 Here are some random thoughts that are keeping us from getting any kind of actual work done today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The replacement referees certainly have taken a beating during the preseason and rightfully so.\u00a0 But just how bad are they really?\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t know they were \u2018replacement\u2019 referees would you be placing every call under a microscope?\u00a0 Less we forget the real referees make terrible, game altering calls on a regular basis too.\u00a0 These replacements aren\u2019t immune to the scrutiny and media blood bath.\u00a0 The last thing they want to be is Thursday morning\u2019s headline.\u00a0 Our prediction: they swallow the whistle for the last 4 minutes and let the players play.<\/li>\n<li>We like David Wilson\u2019s chances of <del>scoring a touchdown<\/del> <em>fumbling<\/em> in this one.\u00a0 This kid is <del>electric<\/del> <em>a fumbler<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Jason Spleen won\u2019t suit up for this one.\u00a0 In fact we don\u2019t like his chances for Week 2.\u00a0 In fact, if at all possible try to move him in your fantasy league; we just don\u2019t see him finishing in the top-15 this year.<\/li>\n<li>Vegas has it Giants -3.5.\u00a0 That sounds about right.\u00a0 There are a lot of people out there claiming the Cowboys will win because the Giants don\u2019t play their best football until their back is against the wall; evident by 3-1 record down the stretch last year to finish at 9-7 and their subsequent Super Bowl run.\u00a0 The Machine doesn\u2019t buy it.\u00a0 While the G-men certainly embrace the \u2018must-win\u2019 edge, this veteran group will have no troubles getting up for the season opener against Jerry\u2019s Boys.<\/li>\n<li>The real battle to watch is in the trenches.\u00a0 Can the Cowboys offensive line open holes to get De Murray going early?\u00a0 Can they give Romo time to throw against the best pass rush in football?<\/li>\n<li>JPP O\/U 1.5 sacks.\u00a0 OVER<\/li>\n<li>Prediction: Giants 27 Cowboys 23<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Machine hasn\u2019t been this excited since Draft Weekend!\u00a0 Tonight\u2019s game is a microcosm of the 2012 season; it\u2019s chock-full of storylines, drama, hope, rivalry, despair and Tony Romo!\u00a0 Here are some random thoughts that are keeping us from getting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/?p=144\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Bp3y-2k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bigredsportsmachine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}