The Dallas Cowboys have never lost against the point spread in this situation.
In 2004, the National Football League initiated a season opening tradition of having the reigning Super Bowl Champion open the season at home on Thursday night. In the succeeding 21 years, they have not followed this formula twice.
In 2012, the Baltimore Ravens downed the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Their trip to winning it all included upsetting Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos in the Mile High City during the Divisional Round. The Ravens were near double-digit underdogs in Denver and won the game in overtime, 38-35.
It was a stinging defeat for the home team, but they got revenge the following year in the opening game of the season.
Based on their championship, the Ravens should have opened the 2013 season at home on Thursday night. But a conflict with their stadium prevented them from opening at home that year. While the Ravens and baseball’s Baltimore Orioles play in different stadiums, they share a single parking lot for the two venues. The Orioles were scheduled to play a home game on the date the NFL season opened forcing the Ravens on the road for a game they rightfully should have hosted.
To make it worse for John Harbaugh’s team, the schedule makers gave Baltimore no breaks in where they would open the 2013 season. They sent them back to Denver to meet the same Broncos team at the same site they got their upset win the January before. There was no way the schedule makers could have given the Ravens a tougher opening game matchup, and that played true to form as Manning and company blew out the defending champs, 49-27, to open the 2013 season. A season, ironically, that ended with the Broncos getting blown out in the Super Bowl by the Seattle Seahawks, 43-8.