It figures to be a chilly evening at Lambeau Field as the surging Miami Dolphins, winners of three straight games, head to Green Bay for the first time since 2018.
The franchise is also playing its eighth Thanksgiving contest and first since 2011.
The Dolphins are 5-2 on Turkey Day. While their history on this holiday is very limited, there are three contests (all victories) that really stand out.
Dolphins 14, Cowboys 7 (1973)
In 1973, there was a clash in Irving, Texas, between the previous two Super Bowl champions. The Dallas Cowboys captured their first NFL title in 1971, besting Don Shula's Miami Dolphins, 24-3, in Super Bowl VI at Tulane Stadium. A year later, Shula's club made history by running the table for an entire season. The 1972 Dolphins achieved perfection (17-0), capping it off with a 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII at the L.A. Coliseum.
On Thanksgiving Day in 1973, Shula's team visited Dallas as these clubs battled for the second time in three years. The reigning Super Bowl champions looked every bit the part in the first quarter, with Larry Csonka running for one score and Paul Warfield snaring a 45-yard TD pass from Bob Griese. The Cowboys would not score a point until the fourth quarter. Miami finished the afternoon with 157 yards rushing, more than half of that (80) by Csonka.
The Dolphins would repeat as Super Bowl champions, besting a Minnesota team that knocked off the Cowboys in the NFC title game.
Dolphins 55, Cardinals 14 (1977)
The last time that the Dallas Cowboys did not play on Thanksgiving Day was in 1977. That year and in 1975, the then-St. Louis Cardinals hosted the second game of Turkey Day. On Thanksgiving of '77, Busch Stadium was the site of an extraordinary performance by one of the Dolphins' Hall of Fame signal-callers.
The Miami Dolphins came a calling, and wide receiver Nat Moore recalls the team's trip to St. Louis. "We were going in there on Thanksgiving Day. A writer from the (Hollywood) Sun Tattler—a local South Florida paper at that time—wrote an article saying that we were going to be Thanksgiving dinner for the Cardinals because they had all the superstars."
While there was no turkey, the Dolphins did dine on a bird that afternoon. Bob Griese threw for 207 yards and six scores, three to Moore. Miami scored a total of eight touchdowns in the 41-point victory.
🤓 BESPECTACLED BOB 🤓
On Thanksgiving 1977, @MiamiDolphins QB Bob Griese made glasses cool.@ProFootballHOF @NFLLegends pic.twitter.com/MP4yfwa80T— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) November 22, 2018
The Dolphins finished with 503 yards of total offense, including 295 yards on the ground. Don Shula's team finished 10-4 that season but fell short of the playoffs.
Dolphins 16, Cowboys 14 (1993)
In 1992, Dallas benefited from a Super Bowl-record nine turnovers from the Bills and coasted to a 52-17 victory over Marv Levy's team in Pasadena (XXVII). A year later, Jimmy Johnson's team got off to a 0-2 start without holdout running back Emmitt Smith. In Week 13, the Cowboys hosted a Dolphins team that lost star quarterback Dan Marino for the season in a Week 6 win at Cleveland.
Don Shula's feisty team went toe-to-toe with the reigning champions in the wintry mix, and had a chance to win the game in the closing seconds. Dolphins kicker Pete Stoyanovich had a 41-yard field goal blocked, and the Cowboys appeared to have locked up a one-point win. Inexplicably, Dallas defensive tackle Leon Lett wound up touching the ball downfield, Miami recovered, and Stoyanovich nailed a 19-yarder on the final play of the game for an improbable 16-14 victory.
As for the aftermath, Shula's Dolphins lost their final five games. Meanwhile, the Cowboys never lost again and capped off 1993 with a 30-13 win over the Bills in XXVIII.
