Late Cowboys Surge Not Enough to Prevent Week 17 Schedule Flex

America’s Team is no longer on America’s Game of the Week this Sunday on Fox, representing a rare flexing out of a key national broadcast window for the Cowboys. 

The NFL said on Monday it is shifting a scheduled 4:25 p.m. ET game on Dec. 29 between the 7-8 Cowboys and 12-3 Eagles to 1 p.m. ET, clearing the way for a Packers-Vikings game with many more playoff implications. Dallas has been eliminated from postseason contention, and Philadelphia has clinched its slot. Minnesota, meanwhile, is still in play for the NFC’s top seed and a first-round playoff bye with a 13-2 record, and 10-4 Green Bay is also on the verge of sealing its playoffs entry. 

The reslotted Cowboys-Eagles game will still be shown on Fox. 

The league’s flex scheduling move arrived six days before the games in question, the last day that it could make such a decision according to existing rules. The shift of the Cowboys into a lesser broadcast slot, while a distinct possibility for weeks, still arrives as something of a shock given the team’s status as one of the NFL’s most popular franchises for decades. 

To that end, a late-season division game against a bitter rival in the Eagles had originally been seen as a sure bet to drive large-scale viewership and was a key part of the America’s Game of the Week schedule when it was announced in May. 

The Cowboys, however, are on track for their worst season since finishing 6-10 in 2020 and have fallen hard after three straight playoff seasons with 12 wins each. Several stars, including quarterback Dak Prescott, have been out of action with various injuries. That said, the team has played somewhat better in recent weeks with backup quarterback Cooper Rush, winning four of the last five games, including on Sunday night over the Buccaneers.