Turkey, gravy and pumpkin are Thanksgiving staples, and so too are the Dallas Cowboys, who will once again play on Turkey Day, this time against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders vs Cowboys is set to take place at 4:30 p.m. ET and air on CBS.
Raiders vs Cowboys is the middle game in the three NFL fans can expect on Thanksgiving this year, slated in between the Bears vs Lions and the Bills vs Saints. The rest of NFL week 12 action will then pick up again on Sunday, Nov. 28, with games featuring the Steelers vs Bengals, Titans vs Patriots and Rams vs Packers, as well as Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football, both in primetime.
But if you’re looking forward to enjoying the Raiders vs Cowboys game before, during or after your Thanksgiving meal, here is everything you need to know.
Raiders vs Cowboys matchup preview
This week’s Raiders vs Cowboys game will feature two teams looking for bounce-back wins, though the level of desperation for one is miles apart.
The Raiders are definitely the team that needs the win more, as they are currently on a three game losing streak that has brought their record to 5-5 and dropped them to third in their division. The Raiders are a pass-first offense, so the recent struggles of quarterback Derek Carr have unsurprisingly been key in their skid. Carr has thrown five touchdowns and five interceptions in the last three games and has not eclipsed the 300 yard mark in any of the games. The Raiders have the 28th rushing offense in the NFL, so if they’re not passing the ball effectively and Carr is turning it over, it will be kind of hard for them to win.
Defensively, the Raiders are right in the middle of the league, literally ranking 16 out of 32 in yards allowed per game (352.9). They do feature a pair of good pass rushers in Yannick Ngakoue and Maxx Crosby, who will need good performances to keep Dak Prescott and the Cowboys offense from getting rolling.
That is exactly what happened to the Cowboys in their week 11 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were able to pressure Prescott and keep the offense from taking off, resulting in the Cowboys scoring a season low nine points. A big factor was injuries — left tackle Tyron Smith and wide receiver Amari Cooper were both out in week 11, and other stud receiver CeeDee Lamb left the game with a concussion. Cooper is definitely out for the game against the Raiders (still on the COVID list), while Lamb and Smith are both questionable for Thursday.
The Cowboys defense is much healthier at the moment. While a marked improvement from their historically bad 2020 season, they still rank 18th in the league in yards per game and are a bit more susceptible to the pass than they are the run. However, to counter that, cornerback Trevon Diggs has been an interception machine, snagging eight picks so far this season.
The Cowboys are the favorites for the Thanksgiving game, being given 6.5 points against the Raiders.
How to watch Raiders vs Cowboys in the U.S.
Airing on CBS at 4:30 p.m. ET on Thanksgiving, Raiders vs Cowboys will be available to a national audience. Anyone with a traditional cable/satellite pay-TV service or a TV antenna will be able to get the game from their local CBS station. Subscribers to live TV streaming services, including FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV, also have access to their local CBS stations as part of their service.
In addition to being able to watch the game on the TV, pay-TV and live TV streaming service subscribers can use their login credentials to watch the game through either the CBS Sports website on their computer or the CBS Sports mobile app.
If you have cut the cord, though, you can still watch the Raiders vs Cowboys game this weekend, either live or on-demand. Let’s talk live first. To do this you will need to be a subscriber to the Paramount Plus streaming service. Paramount Plus users can watch NFL games that are available in their local area; the best part is it is available to both subscribers of the $4.99 per month and $9.99 per month plans. In fact, from Nov. 23 until Jan. 3, consumers can get a one-month free trial of Paramount Plus if they sign up and use the promo code "PEAKSALE."
Is your Thanksgiving dinner going to be taking place during the Raiders vs Cowboys game? That’s where a subscription to NFL Game Pass can help you ($9.99 per month). NFL Game Pass provides U.S. subscribers with on-demand replays of every NFL game, either the full TV broadcast or a condensed version that features just the plays. Live games are not available for U.S. subscribers.
How to watch Raiders vs Cowboys from anywhere in the world
NFL Game Pass is also available as an option for certain international viewers. Check the NFL Game Pass website for more information, but the key thing that differentiates NFL Game Pass’ international plan is that it provides subscribers access to both live games and on-demand replays.
Yet another option to watch the game from anywhere in the world is a virtual private network, also known as a VPN. A VPN allows you to route all of your internet traffic through a specific set of servers in a specific country. The one caveat here is that you need to be able to trust your VPN provider, because all of your traffic — encrypted as well as unencrypted — is going to be going through that VPN. For that, we've long been fans of ExpressVPN.
