For certain specific types of fever, the only prescription is more cowbell. And for the NFL’s ongoing ratings malaise, well, you know the cure.
For the second straight week, a stand-alone, nationally-televised game featuring the Dallas Cowboys delivered bigly, with a season-high Thursday Night Football rating of 14.1. Via Greg Aiello of the NFL, it’s the second highest Thursday Night Football rating ever, behind only the 14.3 generated by Broncos-Chiefs in 2015.
The good news for the NFL is that the Cowboys will play in another prime-time, stand-alone game again in Week 14, when they face the Giants in New Jersey. The better news is that the Cowboys will be playing in one or more stand-alone games in the postseason.
The best news would be the Cowboys in prime-time, stand-alone games on a regular basis.
There are limits on how often a team can play in prime-time in a given year. And maybe there shouldn’t be. Maybe the Cowboys should find themselves playing under the lights all the time.
The NFL enjoyed unprecedented growth over the past two decades despite having neither a team in L.A. nor a Cowboys franchise that seriously contended on a regular basis. With Dallas on the front end of what could be an extended run of glory (or at least the serious pursuit of it), the league would be wise to embrace the notion of assigning the Cowboys to as many stand-alone games as it can, rules or procedures or limitations be damned.
UPDATE 2:18 p.m. ET: NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy says the total audience for the game was 21.8 million, making it the biggest audience ever for a Thursday night game and a 22-percent bump over last year’s Thursday night Hail Mary game between the Packers and Lions.
