This week’s “Thursday Night Football” participants have much to bond about, like separated twins who meet at the mall. The Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions both play home games under a shiny roof. They both play home games on Thanksgiving, too. These current versions share firework passing offenses and a blue-white-silver color wheel. Entering Week 14, they’re even alongside one another in the NFC wild-card standings.

Wait, a second narrator murmurs from the other side. That can’t be right. Yeah, the Cowboys use more of a navy, and the Lions’ shade is called Honolulu blue. No, not that. How are these two in similar playoff positions?!

Dallas’ late resurgence and Detroit’s sudden urgency come together for a banger of a TNF matchup.

How to watch Cowboys at Lions
Venue: Ford Field — Detroit
Time: 8:15 p.m. ET, Thursday
TV (national): Prime Video

Cowboys, in market: Fox channel 4 (KDFW)
Lions, in market: Fox channel 2 (WJBK)

Streaming (local): Fubo (Stream Free Now)
Watching in person? Get tickets on StubHub.

“Thursday Night Football” also streams with NFL+ or a Twitch account.

The good and bad with each teamDallas (6-5-1)

Good: This offense has put up more than 450 yards in back-to-back wins … over the most recent Super Bowl participants. Dak Prescott threw for 354 yards in the furious Week 12 comeback against the Philadelphia Eagles. He added another 320 versus the Kansas City Chiefs on Thanksgiving. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are shredding coverages in tandem. The O-line is winning up front, with just two sacks allowed in its last three outings. The Schottenheimer system is definitely Schottenheiming. On the other side of the ball, the defense looks improved since Jerry Jones shoved his chips in for the trade deadline.

Bad: Even with new blue-chipper Quinnen Williams moving the middle, Dallas’ pass defense keeps stumbling. Through its last three games, this bumper-car pileup of a secondary has allowed six touchdowns to one interception. A.J. Brown ate well two weekends ago (eight catches, 110 yards, one TD on 10 targets). Rashee Rice got comfortable last Thursday (eight catches, 92 yards, two TDs on 12 targets). Third-down stops are just about pipe dreams. And as good as the offense has looked, it was also charged with seven turnovers in four November contests.

Detroit (7-5)

Good: Jared Goff is tied with Prescott for the league’s second-most touchdown passes (25). Jahmyr Gibbs leads the league in total TDs since 2023, the year he was drafted out of Alabama. He’s at 44 so far, with five weeks of this season still queued up. Per NFL Media, the only players with more scores in their first three pro campaigns are Barry Sanders (47), Eric Dickerson (46), Gale Sayers (46) and Earl Campbell (45). There are some Hall of Fame tracings in Gibbs’ early work. On the other end, Aidan Hutchinson is a perpetual nuisance. He’s recorded 8 1/2 sacks in a dozen games, with career highs in forced fumbles (4) and defensive snaps played (93 percent).

Bad: Injuries. So many injuries. Cornerback Terrion Arnold (shoulder) just landed on IR and will have season-ending surgery. Fellow standout DB Kerby Joseph (knee) has been on ice since Week 6. Lead wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown is questionable with an ankle injury, and a half-step of lateness goes a long way in this quick-read system. Since drafting him in 2021, the Lions have gone just 7-14-1 in games that St. Brown has had four or fewer touches, according to TruMedia. Spacing has narrowed after Sam LaPorta underwent back surgery last month. Regardless of personnel, ranking No. 27 in red zone defense won’t cut it come January. One place to start? With someone other than Hutchinson winning on the edge.

The updated playoff percentages

Last year, the Lions were the NFC’s top seed at 15-2. Just a few weeks ago, they seemed formidable at 6-3. And yet, the ledger sits at 7-5 before Thursday’s kickoff. According to Austin Mock’s NFL playoff simulator, Detroit’s postseason chances tick up to 45 percent with a Thursday win, and go down to 12 percent if it takes the L. This is a big game.

Now for the reverse. Dallas was a disappointing 7-10 last year, and it was all but dusted at 3-5-1 heading into its Week 10 bye. And yet … the Cowboys have a stone to throw now that they’ve stacked three straight wins. If they can make it four in Detroit, their postseason odds jump to 41 percent. But if the momentum fizzles, that mark drops to a 9 percent sliver.

The broadcast

It’s the usual “Thursday Night Football” crew in Detroit. Al Michaels is on play-by-play. His earliest Super Bowl call dates back to 1988, but he somehow missed the Cowboys’ three championship wins from their ’90s regime. Kirk Herbstreit joins for color commentary. If left to his own devices, the college football devotee might give us an inadvertent preview of the conference championships — the MAC’s Western Michigan and Miami (OH) throw down in this building Saturday, while Herbstreit himself flies to Atlanta to call the SEC’s Georgia-Alabama title match. Kaylee Hartung reports from the sideline. She once completed a 24-hour side quest with the Cowboys cheerleaders, Lucchese boots included.

The jersey combination is as unusual as it is symmetric. Detroit almost never wears its white threads while inside Ford Field. And Dallas rocks white more than any NFL team. The color inversion works here, though, and the matching silver helmets are unique:

Thursday night’s uniform matchup pic.twitter.com/5nqyAclDQg

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) December 1, 2025

The shared histories

Recent head-to-head meetings have been tense. Recall the 2023 Taylor Decker debacle — Detroit’s Pro Bowl left tackle caught what looked like the go-ahead two-point conversion, only for a late flag to wipe it out. Decker said that he reported as eligible. Dan Campbell also said that Decker reported as eligible. And the refs claimed it was Dan Skipper, not Decker, who reported as eligible. Cowboys 20, Lions 19 was the final, costing Detroit the chance at the No. 1 seed:

UNREAL 😱

The Lions get the 2-point conversion but gets called back because Taylor Decker didn’t report as eligible 😳pic.twitter.com/lwm23tCYTi

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) December 31, 2023

Campbell was still thinking about it in last year’s rematch. We can say that with certainty because we watched 1) Skipper report as eligible on Detroit’s first offensive play of the game and 2) the Lions target Decker on first-and-goal … while up 34-9:

.@Lions are trolling 😅 no one’s forgotten what happened with Taylor Decker against the Cowboys last season…

📺: #DETvsDAL on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/7DoNtSxJHE

— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024

Could Decker get another shot at redemption this year? The (potentially) eligible Lion is questionable heading into Thursday. He’s been playing through shoulder pain for much of 2025, per The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy.

Even pre-Campbell, this series would get fantastically weird. All phasers were turned to “shenanigans!” in their January 2015 wild-card matchup. Oh, right, there was also the game-winning fake spike in 2013.

Players to wear both jerseys, via Pro Football Reference

QB: Jon Kitna, 2006-11
RB: Amos Marsh, 1961-67
WR: Roy Williams, 2004-10
TE: Dan Campbell (!), 2003-08
Cowboys at Lions odds

Detroit is 6-6 against the spread (3-3 at home); Dallas is 7-5 ATS (3-3 on the road). The point total has gone over in seven of 12 Lions games and eight of 12 Cowboys games.

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