Six teams eyeing holiday win
Maybe the NFL teams set to play on Thanksgiving got caught looking ahead to the holiday extravaganza.
All six squads playing on Thursday lost in their lead-up to the Thanksgiving game, marking the first time since 2001 that every team playing on the holiday dropped its previous contest.
Back then there were only two Thanksgiving games, with Detroit hosting Green Bay and Dallas hosting Denver.
This year there are six teams – Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, New Orleans and Buffalo – looking to get rid of the bad taste of a loss so they can enjoy their holiday. Four of those are on winless stretches of at least three games.
Detroit (0-9-1) hosts Chicago (3-7) in the first game, a matchup between a winless team and one on a five-game losing streak. The Bears and Lions are familiar Thanksgiving foes, with this being their 19th meeting, two shy of the record held by Detroit and Green Bay.
That game will be followed by the slumping Raiders (5-5), who have lost three straight, visiting the Cowboys (7-3), who have dropped two of three.
The nightcap features
another team on a threegame skid, with New Orleans (5-5) hosting Buffalo (6-4).
The final two games on Thanksgiving are part of a record nine this week between teams that don’t have a losing record, the
most in NFL history in Week 12 or later.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Arizona Cardinals have become the NFL’s road warriors.
The Cardinals have won all six road games this season, with each victory coming
by at least 10 points. The last team to do that was the Cowboys in 1968, when they won all seven road games they played that season by double digits.
Arizona is off this week but can match the mark the following week at Chicago.
PLAYING FROM AHEAD
The Minnesota Vikings have had a knack for playing with the lead.
The Vikings are the 20th team in the Super Bowl era to lead each of their first 10 games by at least seven