{"id":285984,"date":"2026-05-09T16:11:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/285984\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T16:11:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:11:26","slug":"dallas-cowboys-buried-under-pressure-before-2026-season-even-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/285984\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys buried under pressure before 2026 season even starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Cowboys buried under pressure before 2026 season even starts<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NFL is set to officially unveil its complete 2026 regular-season schedule on Thursday<\/a>, but the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> could once again be chosen to open the season for the second consecutive year. Many believe the Cowboys have become victims of their own popularity, as the NFL consistently places them in high-pressure showcase games because they draw some of the highest television ratings.<\/p>\n

Being selected for these spotlight events may be seen as an honor, but it also comes with huge challenges. Teams playing on the road in the NFL Kickoff Game are forced to begin the season against a championship-level opponent in a nationally televised environment packed with challenges.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Dallas already knows at least one major game on its upcoming schedule, as the league announced that the Cowboys will face the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> in Week 3 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sept. 27. The matchup is technically considered a Cowboys home game, but the trip itself presents a difficult challenge for Dallas.<\/p>\n

Traveling from Dallas to Rio de Janeiro covers roughly 5,300 miles, making it statistically more demanding than many of the NFL\u2019s recent international games in Europe. Games played in London or Germany generally involve a five-to-six-hour time difference, but those games are often scheduled around potential bye weeks to help teams recover from the travel impact.<\/p>\n

Research conducted by Boston College in 2016 regarding NFL travel suggested that long-distance trips can heavily affect a team\u2019s performance. According to the study, every additional 1,000 miles traveled can negatively impact a team\u2019s probability of winning due to circadian rhythm disruption and the physical toll of extended travel.<\/p>\n

The scheduling problem is exacerbated by the caliber of the opponent selected for the international stage, as the Ravens have historically dominated the Cowboys in head-to-head meetings, owning a 6-1 all-time record in the series. The game is expected to create huge excitement because of the showdown between Lamar Jackson<\/a> and Dak Prescott<\/a>, but the Cowboys are still traveling thousands of miles to battle one of the AFC\u2019s most elite teams.<\/p>\n

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More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys buried under pressure before 2026 season even starts originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[58062,10423,114,102,113,104,103,15062,80,105010,7698],"class_list":["post-285984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-adam-schefter","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-dak-prescott","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-lamar-jackson","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-kickoff-game","tag-the-cowboys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}