On Thanksgiving, November 27, 2014, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys 33-10 at AT&T Stadium. LeSean McCoy ran for 159 yards, Mark Sanchez threw for 217 and ran for a touchdown, and the Eagles scored touchdowns on their first two drives. Both teams came in at 8-3 and tied for the NFC East lead. Philadelphia left alone in first place.
It was only the second time the Eagles had played in Dallas on Thanksgiving. The first was the 27-0 “Bounty Bowl” win in 1989. The third is set for November 26, 2026.
Two drives, 14 points
Chip Kelly’s Eagles ran their no-huddle offense at full speed from the start. On the opening drive, Darren Sproles ran for 13 yards on third-and-1, and McCoy went 36 yards down the right sideline to the Dallas 22. Riley Cooper caught a pass at the 2, and Sanchez ran it in on the next snap. The drive covered 80 yards in nine plays and took exactly three minutes.
Dallas answered with an 11-play drive that stalled at the Philadelphia 45, and the Eagles went 88 yards in seven plays and 1:52. McCoy ran for 19, Jordan Matthews and Jeremy Maclin caught passes of 15 and 13 yards, and Sanchez lofted a 27-yard touchdown pass to Matthews down the left side over two defenders. Sanchez completed 9 of 11 passes for 99 yards in the first quarter.
The Cowboys got back in it on their next drive. Dez Bryant caught a 38-yard pass to the 4, and DeMarco Murray scored from the 1 on the first play of the second quarter. That made it 14-7.
Field goals and a forced fumble
Philadelphia added three Cody Parkey field goals before halftime. On the first, Sanchez had been sacked and stripped by Tyrone Crawford, and Andrew Gardner recovered. On the next snap, Sanchez threw 58 yards to Maclin to the Dallas 20. Parkey kicked a 31-yarder for 17-7 and a 22-yarder at the end of a drive that took 3:52.
Then, with 1:30 left in the half, Brandon Boykin knocked the ball out of Cole Beasley’s hands after a 9-yard catch, and Nate Allen picked it up and ran 22 yards to the Dallas 11. Parkey’s 26-yard kick made it 23-7 at halftime. The Eagles had outgained Dallas 292 yards to 131 in the first half.
| Quarter | Time | Team | Scoring play | Score (PHI-DAL) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 12:00 | PHI | Mark Sanchez 2-yard run (Cody Parkey kick) | 7-0 |
| 1st | 4:17 | PHI | Jordan Matthews 27-yard pass from Sanchez (Parkey kick) | 14-0 |
| 2nd | 15:00 | DAL | DeMarco Murray 1-yard run (Dan Bailey kick) | 14-7 |
| 2nd | 12:14 | PHI | Parkey 31-yard field goal | 17-7 |
| 2nd | 1:39 | PHI | Parkey 22-yard field goal | 20-7 |
| 2nd | 0:24 | PHI | Parkey 26-yard field goal | 23-7 |
| 3rd | 9:16 | DAL | Bailey 28-yard field goal | 23-10 |
| 3rd | 7:29 | PHI | LeSean McCoy 38-yard run (Parkey kick) | 30-10 |
| 4th | 11:05 | PHI | Parkey 25-yard field goal | 33-10 |
A gift Dallas could not use
The Cowboys’ best chance came early in the third quarter. McCoy fumbled at his own 13, and Jeremy Mincey recovered. Murray ran for 9 yards to the 4, but Fletcher Cox stopped him for a loss on second-and-1, and Casey Matthews sacked Tony Romo on third down. Dallas settled for Bailey’s 28-yard field goal.
Philadelphia went 80 yards in 1:43 on the next drive. A roughing-the-passer penalty on George Selvie added 15 yards, and McCoy ran through the right side, cut back to the middle and spread his arms before he crossed the goal line on a 38-yard touchdown run. That made it 30-10.
Romo threw interceptions to Cary Williams and Nate Allen on two of Dallas’ next four drives, and the Cowboys also failed on a fourth-and-1 when Mychal Kendricks dropped Murray for a 6-yard loss. The Eagles sacked Romo four times, through Vinny Curry, Matthews, Brandon Graham and Cox. Romo threw no touchdown passes, which ended his streak of 38 straight games with at least one, the longest in Cowboys history.
| Philadelphia | Dallas | |
|---|---|---|
| Total yards | 464 | 267 |
| Passing | Mark Sanchez, 20 of 29, 217 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT | Tony Romo, 18 of 29, 199 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT |
| Rushing leaders | LeSean McCoy, 25 carries, 159 yards, 1 TD; Chris Polk, 11 carries, 49 yards | DeMarco Murray, 20 carries, 73 yards, 1 TD; Lance Dunbar, 2 carries, 15 yards |
| Receiving leaders | Jeremy Maclin, 8 catches, 108 yards; Jordan Matthews, 4 catches, 51 yards, 1 TD | Dez Bryant, 4 catches, 73 yards; Cole Beasley, 4 catches, 41 yards; Murray, 6 catches, 40 yards |
| Sacks | 4 (Vinny Curry, Casey Matthews, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox) | 1 (Tyrone Crawford) |
| Turnovers | 1 (McCoy fumble) | 3 (Beasley fumble, 2 Romo interceptions) |
“This really felt like last year”
McCoy, the NFL’s rushing leader in 2013, had his biggest game of the season on his 25 carries, a season high. “This really felt like last year,” he said. “It really did.” He gave the credit to his blockers. “The game ball really belongs to them guys up front because this was by far their best game,” he said.
Murray came in leading the league in rushing and had opened the season with eight straight 100-yard games, an NFL record. He was held under 100 for only the second time that season. With Sanchez keeping the ball on read plays, McCoy said, the Dallas defensive ends could not crash down on him: “They had to account for the quarterback.”
Sanchez was starting in place of Nick Foles, who had broken his collarbone in early November. Two years earlier, as the Jets’ quarterback, he had run into the backside of his own lineman and fumbled in a 49-19 Thanksgiving loss to New England. “It is like my favorite holiday, so that’s not cool,” he said of that play. “The game plan was to try not to do that. And we accomplished that.”
Romo was playing four days after a Sunday night win over the Giants, and he did not blame the short week. “I think they just played better than us,” he said. Kelly did not want to talk about a statement win. “We’re not into statements,” he said. “We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to play meaningful football in December, and in this league, every week is a whole different deal, a whole different animal.”
How December went
Kelly was right to be careful. Philadelphia lost 24-14 at home to Seattle the next week, and Dallas won the rematch 38-27 in Philadelphia on December 14 to retake first place. The Eagles then lost 27-24 in Washington and finished 10-6, out of the playoffs. Dallas went 12-4, won the division, beat Detroit in the wild-card round and lost 26-21 at Green Bay in the divisional round.
Murray finished the season with 1,845 rushing yards, the most in the league. In March 2015, Kelly traded McCoy to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso, and Murray signed with the Eagles. Kelly was fired before the final game of the 2015 season.
The 2026 connection
The Eagles return to Arlington on Thanksgiving, November 26, in the 4:30 pm ET game of the 2026 holiday tripleheader, with Miranda Lambert at halftime. This time Dallas has the upper hand: the Cowboys won 38-21 in Philadelphia on a Monday night in October. Dallas is 4-5 and hosts San Francisco on Sunday. Philadelphia is 2-7 and off this week, last in the NFC in the latest playoff picture.
The Eagles have won six of their seven Thanksgiving games. Dallas has had some rough ones in recent years, including the 2015 loss to Carolina in which Romo broke his collarbone again and the 41-16 loss to Washington in 2020. A year before the 2014 game, McCoy’s Eagles had a big day of their own when Foles threw seven touchdown passes in Oakland.
The scoring plays, clock times, drive notes and player numbers above come from the official play-by-play and game data. The quotes are from postgame comments.
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