An established coach faces his former offensive coordinator, while two trademark franchises share a field and a searing urgency. The Dallas Cowboys go west to meet the Las Vegas Raiders on “Monday Night Football,” closing out the NFL’s Week 11 schedule.

It’s also the Cowboys’ first game since Marshawn Kneeland’s death on Nov. 6. “His smile could take you to your knees. In terms of him as an athlete, no one had a better motor than him. So my heart is heavy, our team’s heart is heavy,” Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “We don’t move on, but we do move forward.” Kneeland was 24 years old. On Wednesday, the team announced a memorial fund for direct family support.

How to watch Cowboys at Raiders

ABC is free over the air. “Monday Night Football” also streams on ESPN Unlimited. Both channels are available again on YouTube TV after a carriage deal between Disney and Google was reached Friday night. 

The good and bad with each teamDallas (3-5-1)

Good: The Cowboys have reached 40 points three times, and they’ve been held below 20 just twice. They enter Week 11 with the No. 4 scoring offense and are No. 6 in third-down conversion rate. In the backfield, Javonte Williams has drastically elevated his game. Across four seasons with the Denver Broncos, Williams averaged 4.0 yards per carry and put up a 44.6 percent success rate. With his second squad, those marks have now bumped up to 5.2 and 58.3, respectively.

Dallas also touts two elite receivers in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Both have shown fruitful connections with the slinging Dak Prescott. Lamb is on a four-year Pro Bowl streak and has three consecutive All-Pro nods. Pickens makes expert-difficulty grabs that can defy expectation, if not comprehension:

George Pickens doing George Pickens things

GBvsDAL on NBC
Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock pic.twitter.com/E30tGkllVl

— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2025

Bad: How does a team with such propulsive offense fall to a losing record? With wet paper towel defense, of course. Through 10 weeks, Dallas is 31st in points allowed per game. Per TruMedia, this is the NFL’s worst third-down defense by yards per play and conversions surrendered. Cowboys opponents have scored on 49.5 percent of their drives, another league low. Any chance at a second-half rally to save 2025 falls on defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and his woeful secondary.

Las Vegas (2-7)

Good: Tight end Brock Bowers was a first-team All-Pro in his rookie campaign, and he’s hinted at that dominance again amid a banged-up second season. Compared to 2024, Bowers actually has a higher catch rate and more yards per reception. Two Sundays ago, he went absolutely off on the Jacksonville Jaguars: 12 catches on 13 targets, 127 yards and three touchdowns. He was held to one 31-yard grab in a Thursday night loss to Denver in Week 10, but Bowers has the size and vertical instincts to open up the second level any given week. It goes without saying, but Denver’s defense and Dallas’ defense are worlds apart.

Elsewhere, defensive end Maxx Crosby causes mismatches from the edge, and cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly is coming off a two-interception effort versus the Broncos.

Bad: Geno Smith has thrown more picks (12) than touchdowns (11). That’s certainly awkward after the Raiders traded for him, then extended him during the offseason. Ashton Jeanty is averaging a paltry 3.8 yards per carry. That’s equally awkward after the Raiders drafted him No. 6 overall. Las Vegas has been held to single-digit points in four of its nine outings. The defense is bad on third downs (29th to start the week) and even worse on fourth downs (31st).

Dallas’ new players

Sub-.500 and all, Jerry Jones’ franchise decided to be big-time buyers at the NFL trade deadline. Because the Cowboys had a bye last week, this marks the debut of defensive lineman Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson.

Williams emerged as a perennial Pro Bowler with the New York Jets. His best season came in 2022, when he tallied 12 sacks from the right end position and garnered Defensive Player of the Year votes. Dallas gave up a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 first-rounder to land him. Williams turns 28 in December. As a pass rusher, his counting stats are underwhelming this season — one sack and just three QB hits in eight games — though some of that comes from double-teams along the hapless Jets front. As a run stuffer, he still grades out as a top DT, and he already has a new career high in forced fumbles (3).

Wilson was less of a risk, as the Cincinnati Bengals sent him off for a seventh-round pick in next year’s draft. He was part of the Bengals’ Super Bowl push in 2021, and as the longest-tenured defensive player in Cincinnati, the sixth-year linebacker was named a captain to start this season.

Two more Cowboys defenders are expected to make their 2025 season debut Monday: linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and cornerback Shavon Revel Jr.

Carroll’s former coordinator

Pete Carroll, 74, is the NFL’s oldest coach, so he’s no stranger to facing off with former protégés. Monday brings a new relationship to the forefront, as Schottenheimer was Carroll’s offensive coordinator in Seattle from 2018-20. The Seahawks ranked in the top 10 in scoring and top five in passing TDs for each of those three seasons. Smith was the backup QB in Schottenheimer’s final campaign, too. The pairing parted after Seattle’s 2020 playoff exit, but the two appear to be on good terms heading into this meeting.

“I changed in Seattle,” the first-year Cowboys coach told Michael Silver of The Athletic. “Pete was really good for me. He’s as big an influence on me as there is in all of coaching.”

Fantasy fusion team

Players to wear both jerseys, via Pro Football Reference

QB: Steve Beuerlein, 1988-92
RB: Darren McFadden, 2008-17
WR: Amari Cooper, 2015-21
WR: Rocket Ismail, 1993-2001
TE: Jason Witten, 2003-20

One of our more interesting fusion lineups this year. The combined offensive line would have five-time Pro Bowler Andre Gurode and two-time Super Bowl champ Kevin Gogan. Our play caller would be Norv Turner, who won a pair of rings as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, then coached the Raiders in the mid-2000s.

Cowboys at Raiders odds

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