If I could make any decree relative to the NFL schedule at large it would be that no division games occur within the first four weeks of the season. My thought process here is that teams, especially nowadays with so little action in the preseason, are still finding themselves and these games are incredibly consequential to overall results.
We cannot seriously expect any team to be their peak version when the season first kicks off. Save those consequential games for when they have found themselves.
Ultimately the NFL disagrees with this idea so rant over. More than disagreeing with the idea, the league also handed the Dallas Cowboys two divisional games to start their season as America’s Team will visit the Philadelphia Eagles and host the New York Giants to start 2025.
Starts like this can be beneficial . If you can begin a season 2-0 with both of those games in your division then you set yourself up with some extra room for error across the campaign as a whole.
There is evidence of this in Cowboys history.
Here is how the Cowboys have fared after two straight NFC East games to start their season since the merger
To be clear, NFL history goes back quite a ways and in doing the research for this it felt fair to cut things off at the league’s merger in 1970 for simplicity’s sake. You will note that some of the years we are going to reference are seasons in which what is now the Arizona Cardinals franchise (they have bounced around across history) is a part of the NFC East. Old school fans will remember the Phoenix and even St. Louis days of that team.
With that established, there are 10 instances of the Cowboys beginning a season with consecutive games within their division. They made the playoffs on six of those occasions and even turned one of them into a Super Bowl title at the beginning of their 1990s dynasty.
Dallas Cowboys History Of Starting Season Off With 2 Division Games
Year
Result
Cowboys Overall Season Record
Did Dallas Make the Playoffs?
NFC East Champion
Year
Result
Cowboys Overall Season Record
Did Dallas Make the Playoffs?
NFC East Champion
2019
2-0
8-8
No
Philadelphia Eagles
2016
1-1
13-3
Yes
Dallas Cowboys
2015
2-0
4-12
No
Washington
2000
0-2
5-11
No
New York Giants
1992
2-0
13-3
Yes
Dallas Cowboys
1987
1-1
7-8
No
Washington
1983
2-0
12-4
Yes
Washington
1981
2-0
12-4
Yes
Dallas Cowboys
1972
2-0
10-4
Yes
Washington
1970
2-0
10-4
Yes
Dallas Cowboys
Amazingly, of all 10 instances there is only a single time in which the Cowboys were skunked and won neither of their divisional contests. That 2000 season was a dark time.
While we can look at the Super Bowl XXVII win as an example of what being 2-0 in division to start the season can do for you, honestly the best example might be the 2015 season. You will recall that the Cowboys beat the Giants and won at Philadelphia to start that year and that Dez Bryant and Tony Romo, respectively, were lost to injury for serious stretches in each contest. That year was a horrific one for the team, one where Romo missed 12 games and the Cowboys lost 11 of them, but they were kept alive in the NFC East race for so long partly because the rest of the division was down, but also partly because of that start. It can matter that much.
Shockingly, the Cowboys went 2-0 in division to start the 2019 season and wound up missing the playoffs entirely (they even got to 3-0 before dropping three straight to fall to .500 on the season at that point). Like with the 2015 team though, they were in the thick of things for a long time, right down to the wire basically, and the primary reason was that powerful start.
Ultimately this is a bit of a different shake to start the season as the very first game in 2025 is on the road against the defending Super Bowl Champions in the Eagles. That makes it an even harder game, generally speaking, than your normal and traditional divisional game.
As noted the Cowboys began the 2016 season 1-1 in divisional games through their first two contest and ultimately not only reached the playoffs, but were the top seed in the NFC which proves that quite literally anything can happen.