The best ever pair of Thanksgiving Day games?

[74_75_78_79_]

Currently watching the '98 Vikings/Cowboys game on NFLN prompts this post. Madden and Summerall announcing. I actually forgot that Deion didn't play in this game thus we not getting to see him take on Moss or Carter. Not sure this makes this, here, the best Turkey Day twosome ever, but rookie Moss showing his stuff yet again, but in this case on that very day in front of a national audience at the expense of "America's Team"/Team of the '90s - making them regret not picking him in the Draft!

And of course you got the game before that one! Historically notable for its own reason! And so the dark, but at least brief, 6-18 slump in the Bill Cowher Era would begin just when you thought the Steelers, going in at 7-4 (coming off a convincer over Jax), would make the playoffs for a seventh-straight year.

I don't exactly have encyclopedic knowledge of Thanksgiving match-ups through the years/decades. If there's a game I remember or am aware of, I almost for sure wouldn't remember who played in the other game.

'98 seems like a good start! Any better pair of TD games to bring up? Yes, this refers to before that third game was added. Unless there were three-for-three good ones (and that, despite it all being much recent at least, I wouldn't recall on my own either).

[GameBeforeTheMoney]

1962 had the Packers at Lions classic. AFL had a crazy Broncos/Titans 46-45 game.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... 220den.htm

[74_75_78_79_]

1991 not a bad double-TD-venue, I see. 9-3 Bears go to 8-4 Lions for the first game. Not a real pretty one. but at least close enough on the scoreboard. It was 13-6, Lions, going into the 4th before a Murray kick would add the final three points to make the final, 16-6. Neither QB played a good game, nor did Neal Anderson or #20. Bears had more total yards, had the ball for 33+ minutes, had more first downs, but turned the ball over 6 times - four Harbaugh INTs among them!

Next game was Chuck Noll in his final season, Steelers at 5-7 and mathematically still alive FWIW, going into Dallas to face Jimmy's 7-5 Boys who just came off handing Washington their first loss (at RFK) thus beginning to get hot down the stretch despite Aikman being out. The struggling 'Burgh kept it respectable-enough, at least, but lost 20-10.

Didn't see the first game. My family, friends-of-family, and I were at the Macy's Day Parade. But I got to see the beginning of the second game back at one of their homes nearby in NJ before hearing the rest of it on the radio on our way home. Screamed and pounded on the dashboard when Irvin scored that 66-yard TD late in the 4th! The pre-game showed different members of '70s Steelers & Cowboys in their living rooms with their loved ones, each wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Lions and Cowboys each were on 6-game-win-streaks before meeting in that divisional five weeks later!

[Gary Najman]

1974: Denver-Detroit, a 31-27 Broncos victory after being behind 20-17, and then Dallas-Washington, with Clint Longley great performance for a 24-23 Cowboys win.

1994: Buffalo-Detroit, a great victory for the Lions with Dave Krieg (20-25 for 351 yards and three TDs, winning 35-21) and then Jason Garrett outperforming Brett Favre-to-Sterling Sharpe 4 TDs for a 42-31 win for the Cowboys over the Packers.

[Gary Najman]

In 1986 there was my favorite all-time Thanksgiving game, Green Bay 44-40 victory over the Joe Ferguson-led Lions, with a great performance by Packers WR Walter Stanley (2 receiving TDs and the winning TD on a punt return, those were the only TDs of Stanley's 8-year career). The Seahawks-Cowboys game was expected to be a great game, but I think (at the time) was the worst showing of the Cowboys I ever saw on Thanksgiving at Texas Stadium . Seattle won 31-14.

[Mark]

In 1987 the early game Chiefs-Lions was decent I guess [do not remember it really but it was a close game] but the late game Vikings-Cowboys was great.

[74_75_78_79_]

1974: Denver-Detroit, a 31-27 Broncos victory after being behind 20-17, and then Dallas-Washington, with Clint Longley great performance for a 24-23 Cowboys win.

I see that 1990 had the same lineup! Only this time it was Detroit winning against Denver, in what was a battle of 3-7s going in. Bob Gagliano outplays Elway!! #20 rushing for 147 and a TD. Lions were up by as much as 17 early on but Denver cut it to 7 in the 4th to make it 34-27. But that would be it for two Murray FGs would be the remaining points scored, securing the Lions the ‘W’.

Next up, Dallas beating playoff-bound Washington. Dallas, at 4-7 going in, came off beating Robinson’s now-struggling Rams in LA. This win made it two-in-a-row and they would go on to win two more thus suddenly flirting with the playoffs already in Jimmy’s second year just a year removed from 1-15.

[BD Sullivan]

Oddities from 1964 and 1965

In 64, the Bears beat the Lion 27-24 and the Bills beat the Chargers ... 27-24.

In 65, both games ended in ties: Colts and Lions (24-24) and Bills-Chargers (20-20)/

From 1967-69, it was a true football feast with FOUR games on.

[Sonny9]

1926 when The Yellow Jackets beat Green Bay 20-14 and the Cardinals-Bears game that ended in a 0-0 tie.

[Mark]

1978 also had the same lineup as 1974 & 1990.