All the enjoyable and video games concerned with predicting the Dallas Cowboys 2026 schedule are practically over, as the complete schedule might be revealed as we speak. When it’s, there might be at the very least a couple of dates that come as no shock, as they’ve already been confirmed by way of leaks. Two of those video games are matchups towards their division rivals, together with their annual Thanksgiving Day dwelling sport.
We all know the Cowboys will start the 2026 season in the identical place the 2025 season got here to an anticlimactic finish, on the New York Giants for Sunday Evening Soccer. This may even (naked with us right here) mark the second straight season that Cowboys followers are “waiting all day for Sunday night” to start the season. Final 12 months the ready was really on a Thursday night time for the NFL kickoff sport on the Philadelphia Eagles, but in TV phrases this nonetheless counts as a presentation of NBC’s SNF. Talking of the reigning-division champion Eagles, their annual journey to AT&T Stadium will come on Thanksgiving this 12 months.
The Cowboys will play the Eagles on Thanksgiving for the primary time since 2014, on the lookout for their first ever Turkey Day win towards Philadelphia
Thanksgiving 2026 would be the fourth time in 5 seasons the Cowboys play a divisional opponent on Thanksgiving. Two of those earlier three have been towards the Giants in 2022 and 2024, turkey sandwiched round a 2023 win towards the Washington Commanders.
2014 was the final time the Cowboys hosted the NFC East model of birds on a vacation centered round cooking a hen. It was sadly the house group getting cooked within the 2014 model of this sport although, because the Eagles received 33-10.
The one different Cowboys versus Eagles Thanksgiving sport was additionally lopsided for the customer, a 27-0 win in a sport with a reputation. Buddy Ryan’s Eagles received the “Bounty Bowl” in shutout style towards a Cowboys group that completed the season 1-15 in Jerry Jones’ first season as proprietor. The Cowboys have been shutout thrice that season, with the ultimate one coming two weeks after Thanksgiving to the Giants, the week after being swept by the Eagles on the highway.
Two video games, two losses by a mixed rating of 60-10. The Cowboys are on the lookout for a 2026 renewal with many nationwide pundits pondering they’re trending upwards. The Eagles are a group with the alternative sentiment – there may be reliable concern the Nick Sirianni/Jalen Hurts teaching/QB duo has already been reached its pinnacle. The NFL certain is aware of easy methods to create most drama in video games assured to attract a ton of eyeballs, which Cowboys video games all the time do anyway, however Thanksgiving is known to be an entire new stage to that.
Final 12 months’s Eagles at Cowboys sport exhibits the instant potential on this sport. The Cowboys accomplished a 21-point comeback by holding the Eagles scoreless over the ultimate 42 minutes of play, a Herculean effort by a protection that in any other case was the explanation this group didn’t contend for the playoffs, and received the sport on the buzzer on a Brandon Aubrey discipline aim. The win capped off a season collection the place the Cowboys went toe-to-toe with the Eagles, dropping the season opener 24-20.
One other cool factor in regards to the Cowboys Week 12 win towards the Eagles final season was the way it set them as much as do one thing for the primary time in franchise historical past 4 days later, on final 12 months’s Thanksgiving. After beating the Eagles, the Cowboys went on to beat the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Thanksgiving. They turned the primary group in league historical past to beat each of the earlier season’s Tremendous Bowl individuals in a span of 5 days, and simply the fourth general. The opposite situations of this taking place got here with the 1982 Chargers, 1985 Lions, and 2016 Falcons.
(Photograph by Cooper Neill/Getty Photographs) Getty Photographs
There’s little doubt in any way these two wins have been the high-point of an in any other case up and down season, as a part of a larger three-game win streak which was really the one successful streak of your complete season. All the wins got here in a highlight, beating the Raiders on Monday Evening Soccer, Eagles on FOX’s America’s Recreation of the Week, and Chiefs on Thanksgiving.
This win streak began proper because the Cowboys launched Quinnen Williams, introduced in through a commerce with the Jets, to the defensive lineup. Having Williams for a full season in a totally revamped protection is now one of the vital thrilling issues to look ahead to for the Cowboys in 2026.
In the case of the looming Thanksgiving go to from the Eagles on the defensive aspect of the ball, there may be, after all, the juiciness of Christian Parker teaching towards his former group and Vic Fangio, who has introduced Parker alongside as a trusted assistant at a number of spots within the league.
The Cowboys have received seven of their final eight at dwelling towards the Eagles, and in the event that they make it eight of 9 on Thanksgiving, they’ll even be making quirky Turkey Day franchise historical past in back-to-back seasons. Beating the earlier 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl individuals in 5 days in 2025, and at last beating the Eagles on Thanksgiving in 2026. Plus, they will get Bounty Bowl revenge. And Christian Parker will get the win over Vic Fangio. We also needs to point out once more – it’s a division sport.
That must be some juicy turkey.
