Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys play their second to last non-Sunday game of the season at the Detroit Lions here in Week 14, drawing the broadcast team of Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit for the first time in 2025. On paper, this is as good of a matchup as has been on Amazon’s TNF all season.
The normal circumstances are different in this game as both teams are coming off a full week of rest, playing back-to-back Thursdays after doing their annual hosting on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys beat the Chiefs in the most watched NFL game ever on Thanksgiving, and now will play on the Thursday following Turkey Day for the first time since 2018 when they beat Washington on the holiday and New Orleans the following week. That win against the Saints extended the Cowboys’ win streak to four games, which is what they’ll also be vying for at the Lions this week.
The Lions are playing this rare Thursday-Thursday double-dip for just the second time ever, but second time in a row as well. Last season, the Lions beat the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving, at the time coached by current Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. The following Thursday, they beat another division rival in the Green Bay Packers. This time around, it will be a loss to the Packers the Lions are coming off of to play the Cowboys for the fourth season in a row, now trailing the Bears in the NFC North.
Playoff stakes are on the line for both teams with the Cowboys over .500 for the first time all year at 6-5-1 and the Lions at 7-5. The Lions have been in the playoffs each of the last two seasons under Dan Campbell, winning 15 and 12 games. To win 12 games this season, the Lions would need to win out starting against the Cowboys. The expectation around the Lions despite not having back-to-back wins since weeks four and five is still to be a playoff team after being the top seed a year ago, but right now that top spot belongs to their rival the Bears, and the Lions are trying to re-find themselves in a hurry.
Their opponent this week, the Cowboys, have found themselves in a huge way in their wins against the Eagles and Chiefs, and with that are also rapidly growing their own expectation of reaching the playoffs under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer. He already has one win against each NFC East rival, and beat his former team the Jets, and former mentor Pete Carroll with the Raiders, as well as Andy Reid coaching his father’s former team with the Chiefs. A part of last season’s 47-9 Cowboys loss to the Lions at home though, avenging that game and beating a third straight contender would be a lion-sized step even further in the right direction for the Cowboys entering December in the hunt.
The Cowboys and Lions playing against each other has become a bit of a measuring stick game...
