The NFL schedule is set to be released on May 14th which is very exciting. At the moment we do know one game for the Dallas Cowboys and that is a Week 3 “home” game against the Baltimore Ravens. That is technically a game that Dallas is the host team for, but it is taking place in Brazil.
It is jarring to see the Cowboys finally relent and cede a home game as they have fought off doing so for a long time. In fact, most teams don’t even want to give up their home games against the Cowboys because of how
big of a draw it is for their area what with how big the Cowboys fanbase is.
Dallas was a very different team last time they played internationally
The last time in which the Cowboys played a game internationally they were the “road” team in a contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The game took place in London at Wembley Stadium for those who don’t remember.
If you do not remember, that was a magical time for the Cowboys. That 2014 season is one of the more precious ones in our memory banks throughout The Drought™ and that year the team was really finding a way to make things happen in what was easily Tony Romo’s finest season to date from an overall perspective.
Romo was hardly alone, though. DeMarco Murray was setting the league on fire with how he was leading it in rushing, rookie Zack Martin helped fortify the offensive line group that Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick were in the process of leading a few years prior, and Dez Bryant was in peak form.
Dez actually had the signature moment from the Wembley game. This was some of his finest work.
Jason Witten caught Romo’s other touchdown pass in this game. Joseph Randle had a 40-yard run for a score. Read that last sentence again.
On the Jacksonville side of things the only touchdowns were scored by Denard Robinson. We are here to talk about the Cowboys, but this also helps contextualize just how long ago all of this was.
Dallas had three takeaways on defense, that season’s group was particularly fortunate to benefit from turnovers on the year at large. Jack Crawford and George Selvie forced fumbles, both Barry Church and C.J. Spillman each had a recovery, and Bruce Carter picked off Blake Bortles. Quite the trip down memory lane.
This game carried a lot of stress in the lead-up to it, by the way. Again, for those who don’t recall or didn’t experience it. You see two weeks prior Romo, who the season hinged upon despite Murray’s excellence, was injured during a Monday night loss to Washington. The Cowboys lost that game and the next against the Arizona Cardinals with Brandon Weeden under center.
The Cowboys were 6-1 before those two losses and had a bye after the Jacksonville game in London. Many offered, at the time, that even if Dallas fell to 6-4 that it wasn’t worth Romo rushing himself back and potentially compromising the rest of the season. He played though, Dallas won, and they sat at the bye at 7-3 before returning and winning five of the last six games in the regular season.
Those Cowboys would go on to win the NFC East, beat the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card Round, and we don’t really have to talk about anything else.
