The Dallas Cowboys put their recent home wins against last year’s conference champions to the test on the road this Thursday, at last year’s top-seed in the NFC, the Detroit Lions. The Cowboys are just 2-4 on the road this season, with wins against a pair of last place AFC teams, the Jets and Raiders. They draw a Lions team that is 4-2 at home, with both losses being to division rivals, the Vikings and Packers. That loss to the Packers came on Thanksgiving for the Lions, creating a sweep by Green Bay to fall behind them in the division at 7-5 compared to 8-3-1 for the Packers. The loss also extended a streak of nine weeks where the Lions have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games. The Cowboys can relate to this, sharing a similar pattern through the first seven weeks of this season without consecutive wins or losses, and that tie versus the Packers.
The time for both of these teams to solidify who they are is here as the calendar turns to December, as both suit up for their second straight Thursday game and fourth in four years against each other. To do so, both teams are looking to lean into the identity of their head coaches even further. The Lions have been in the playoffs the past two seasons under Dan Campbell, who has more on his plate than ever this season after losing both coordinators to head coach jobs in the offseason. This equation got even more complicated for Campbell when he recently took over calling the plays on offense himself as well.
Detroit has battled through injuries, these scheme changes, and their last three losses all being by one score to maintain the expectation they’re a tough, physical team to play against with a veteran quarterback and a star at running back. Going from losing in the conference championship in 2023, to the divisional round in 2024, then missing the playoffs entirely this season is not what former Cowboys tight end Dan Campbell has in mind for the progression of his team now in year five as head coach. Playing their second-to-last home game of the season against the Cowboys would be the time to prove the Lions’ ambitions are about the playoffs once again, with difficult road games at the Bears, Rams, and Vikings team that already beat them ahead.
On the other side for the Cowboys, they are learning in real time the heights they can reach in just year one under Brian Schottenheimer. Undefeated since the tragic passing of teammate Marshawn Kneeland, the Cowboys have put their heart, culture, and level of preparation and faith in their star players on full display in consecutive wins against the Raiders, Eagles, and Chiefs. Their offense is no longer feeling the pressure of having to score on nearly every drive to win thanks to a reeling defense.
The defense is not only doing a better job supporting an offense that continues to make big plays on the ground and through the air, they’ve made their own name for themselves in these wins. Quinnen Williams has made a huge difference at defensive tackle, as the Cowboys defense got seven straight stops to come back from down 21-0 against the Eagles and five stops in six possessions against the Chiefs to swing that game. “Complementary football” is a term that’s been thrown around in Dallas well before Schottenheimer was even offensive coordinator under Mike McCarthy, so much so that the meaning may be diluted at this point. Now fully in charge though, Schottenheimer’s team is embodying complementary football in the best way, and making a statement along with the Lions as a team in the hunt for a NFC playoff spot.
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This sets up a Thursday Night Football tilt where every decision Campbell and Schottenheimer make will be under the microscope as the Cowboys search for their first win in Detroit since 2019, and Lions look for their second in a row against the Cowboys after losing the previous six. Not counting this season’s kickoff game between the Cowboys and Eagles on a Thursday night, nor the Cowboys or Lions Thanksgiving games, out of the 12 other “traditional” Thursday night games this season, only five have been decided by one score. In this same sample size of games, the last road team to win one of these Thursday contests was the Baltimore Ravens at the Miami Dolphins in week nine. Home teams are 8-3, but this week is unique in that both teams are coming off a full week of rest having played on Thanksgiving, and Dallas may hold an advantage being the winning team on Turkey Day – the only home team to do so out of the three that holiday.
A Cowboys versus Lions game putting coaching in the spotlight is nothing new in the recent series history between franchises that first met in 1960, the first year of play for the Cowboys. Since the time the Cowboys have been in the league, the Lions went 10 seasons in a row missing the playoffs, snapping the streak in 1970 just to lose 5-0 in the Divisional round to Tom Landry’s Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl. The game was 3-0 into the fourth quarter before the Dallas defense added a safety. To this day it is the lowest scoring NFL playoff game of all time. It is one of only two playoff games all-time without any touchdowns scored, with the other happening at the end of that same decade in 1979 between the Rams and Bucs.
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Here in 2025, these uber-low scoring games are mere historical footnotes as this year’s Cowboys and Lions both rank in the current top five of points scored this season. The Cowboys are second with 351 behind the Colts’ 357, and the Lions are one point behind both the Cowboys and Patriots with 350, tied with the Seahawks. This aligns with the focus both teams have put in both offensive coaching, and their quarterbacks, both of which will continue on Thursday. The first win for the Cowboys in the recent history against the Lions in 2022 was actually Ben Johnson’s first season as offensive coordinator for the Lions. The Dallas defense coordinated by Dan Quinn caught the Lions in early season growing pains, coming off a 29-0 shutout at the Patriots for their third straight loss and fourth in five games. Even coming off the bye to play in Arlington didn’t help the Lions, as they managed just two field goals in a 24-6 week seven loss.
Those Lions still managed to win nine games that season, laying the groundwork for what would be a historic season and memorable December game against the Cowboys in 2023. The Goff and Johnson-led offense took off that season, and coming off 42 and 30 point performances to beat the Broncos and Vikings, the Lions visited the Cowboys for a Saturday night presentation of ESPN’s Monday Night Football in Week 17. Detroit put the full bearing of their aggressive nature and play-to-win-the-game attitude on display for this national audience late in the game, appearing to have a two-point conversion to take the lead with less than a minute to play. The play lives on in infamy for Lions fans though, as the throw to tackle Taylor Decker was flagged for Decker being an ineligible receiver. The Lions still opted to play for the win and lined up to go for two again from the seven.
Goff’s pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who had the touchdown that created the insane sequence in the first place, was incomplete but the drama was somehow still not over. To conclude that wild 2023 game, yet another attempt from the three-yard line after a penalty was again incomplete, and the Cowboys 20-19 lead held after CeeDee Lamb recovered an onside kick. Lamb also had his career-long 92 yard touchdown in this game.
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The Lions would somewhat get the last laugh after this, making a run all the way to the NFC Championship game at the 49ers while the Cowboys were routed at home in the Wild Card round against the Packers. These laughs would continue when Campbell, Johnson, Goff and the Lions came back to AT&T Stadium one more time in 2024. On Jerry Jones’ birthday, the Cowboys were clawing for any semblance of momentum in a slow start to the season in week six. Drawing the Lions off the bye was not the recipe for the Cowboys to get any momentum whatsoever. Despite the Cowboys coming off wins at the Giants and Steelers, they suffered their worst home loss in the Jones’ ownership era, 47-9 to the Lions. Detroit had the game so in hand with so much time on the clock they were more worried about completing a pass to Taylor Decker just for fun than they were about the result in the second half. It was the third straight win for the Lions as part of a longer 11-game win streak that lasted through Week 14. Come playoff time, Detroit would get a taste of what Dallas went through the year prior being favorited at home but losing swiftly in their first playoff game 45-31 to Dan Quinn and the Commanders.
Whether or not Campbell can motivate the Lions to build off of winning the most recent meeting between these teams, without Johnson by his side as offensive coordinator, or Schottenheimer can motivate his Cowboys to avenge that embarrassing loss is a storyline for this week. The ultimate thing the Cowboys are trying to prove down the stretch of 2025 is that they are a playoff team, but full control of that is out of their hands. As far as what is fully in the Cowboys hands for them to prove, continuing to lay the bricks of a strong foundation culturally and competitively is well in play at the Lions vying for win number four in a row.
Each win over this streak has had different layers of impressiveness for the Cowboys, and adding a road win against another playoff caliber team in primetime would be the latest layer. With two teams that stack up so equally to each other, whichever team can remain within their identity the longest on Thursday and run the ball, create downfield shots with play-action, and hunt for takeaways on defense is likely to be the winner. Thanks to their head coaches, neither team is easy in the slightest to knock off their identity.
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How Matt Eberflus’ completely new-look defense fares against the Lions feels like a bit of a wild card factor for this game. Ben Johnson already picked up where he left off from that 2024 Lions win at the Cowboys by shredding another Dallas defense in week three of this season, as the Bears beat the Cowboys 31-14. Eberflus coaching against his old team gave the Cowboys no competitive advantage, as they simply didn’t have the defensive personnel to line up at that point. Now, Eberflus gets a second try of sorts, coaching against the team he lost to in his final game as the Bears head coach. After the Lions beat the Bears on Thanksgiving last year, Eberflus was fired in Chicago having lost his sixth game in a row. Adding yet another layer of coaching intrigue for this upcoming Cowboys at Lions game, Eberflus now has the pieces in place defensively to matchup with Campbell’s offense and create a much better memory of coaching in Detroit.
It feels weird to be grouping the Lions in with the Cowboys as NFC franchises that need to find postseason success now, but here in Week 14 they are squaring off to impact one another’s playoff probabilities in what shapes up to be another thrilling chapter of a matchup happening for the fourth time in four years. This will also be the last scheduled primetime game for both teams, with Week 18 times TBD based on playoff scenarios when the Lions visit the Bears and Cowboys go to the Giants.