Cowboys: History Suggests Victory Over Carolina Panthers

The Dallas Cowboys may have the upper hand against the Carolina Panthers on Thanksgiving Day – at least if history has anything to say about this game.

In today’s watered-down and highly average NFL, it’s not very often that you find long-lasting streaks between two teams. Things are much more back and forth, especially within divisional play, and that trend seems to continue as rosters turn over so much every year and depth is just a thing of the past.

But there’s still some curious trends that still exist.

One such trend is the one that still exists between the Dallas Cowboys and the Carolina Panthers.

You’ll recall that Carolina didn’t even exist before the 1995 season, this franchise still a young whipper-snapper in the NFL ranks. If not for the fact that the Panthers, and ’95 expansion sibling Jacksonville Jaguars, were stocked in such ridiculous fashion, this streak could be even longer.

In short, the Panthers just can’t beat the Cowboys, especially in the regular season.

The Cowboys are a near-perfect 9-1 against Carolina during the regular season, a mark that borders on a fluke given the state of the league during the Panthers entire lifespan. Further, that record is compounded by a current nine-game winning streak heading into Thursday’s 11th meeting between these two teams at AT&T Stadium on Thanksgiving Day.

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If you’re scratching your head upon hearing this fact while clearly recollecting Dallas defeat against the Panthers, it’s no surprise. In sharp contrast to their regular season results, Carolina is a perfect 2-0 against the Cowboys in the postseason, another bizarre trend.

In fact, the first ever match-up between these two teams took place on January 5, 1997.

Winning the NFC East with a record of 10-6, although the team was awfully close to an 11-5 record or better, it was no secret that the Cowboys were a shell of the teams that won back-to-back Super Bowls while the Panthers were still in the womb. A 40-15 pasting of the Minnesota Vikings in a Wild Card playoff the week prior had Dallas looking like a team ready to make another run at the Super Bowl.

But Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin went down in the opening moments of a Divisional Playoff against a second-year Carolina team that had won the old NFC West with a record of 12-4. With no primary receivers for Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman to throw to, this expansion team went on to an NFC Championship Game in year two of it’s spoiled existence – the Jaguars reached the AFC Championship Game that same year.

So much for expansion teams paying some dues. The rest of the NFL now pays those for them.

Later in ’97, the Cowboys met Carolina for the first time during the regular season, a Week 15 get-together in December at Texas Stadium. The Cowboys were on their way to a 6-10 record and the final season for former head coach Barry Switzer. The Panthers remained undefeated against Dallas following a 23-13 victory on Monday Night Football.

But that’s been it for Carolina, at least where regular season wins against the Cowboys are concerned.

It hasn’t mattered how good or bad the Cowboys have been during previous seasons in which these two teams have met. Dallas always seems to come out on top.

Current Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, then a backup quarterback to Aikman, got the Cowboys their first-ever victory against the Panthers at Texas Stadium in 1998.

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Aikman got his only win over Carolina during his final season in the NFL in 2000 – that team went just 5-11 on the season.

Even after Aikman was gone, the Cowboys continued to find ways to beat the Panthers.

In 2002, Dallas was embarking on a third-straight season of 5-11 football when second-year quarterback Quincy Carter pulled off an incredible comeback win over the Panthers at Texas Stadium. Trailing 13-0 nothing with four minutes remaining, the Cowboys seemed dead. But Carter hit wide receiver Joey Galloway with an 80-yard touchdown pass to make the score 13-7. He then found rookie wideout Antonio Bryant for another touchdown with just under a minute remaining to secure a 14-13 win.

Former head coach Bill Parcells never lost to Carolina from 2003-2006, a stretch which included a 35-14 road victory in the first career regular-season start for current starting quarterback Tony Romo in ’06 – Parcells did lose the other postseason meeting between Dallas and Carolina a few seasons prior in ’03.

If you’re keeping score, you’ve figured out the fact that Romo has never lost to the Panthers in a total of four tries spanning ’06 through the last meeting in 2012.

Granted, the Panthers have probably never brought a team as good as this year’s group (10-0) into a game against the Cowboys. It’s also important to remember that despite a Dallas record of just 3-7 coming in, Dallas has obviously had tremendous injury issues this season, yet remains undefeated (3-0) when Romo actually plays football.

For Panthers fifth-year quarterback Cam Newton, it will be just his second shot at the Cowboys during his relatively brief career. The former Heisman Trophy winner from Auburn has accomplished a great deal during his career, but he’s yet to beat the Cowboys and Thursday will mark his first trip to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Newton lost to Dallas back in 2012 in a close game at The BOA in Charlotte, North Carolina. In fact, Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne, then a promising rookie first-round pick, had one of his three career interceptions in that game.

Next: Cowboys: One Thing Left To Do

Perhaps Carolina is both due and good enough to beat the Cowboys in a game that could likely all but end Dallas’ playoff chances with more than a month remaining on the 2015 schedule – but history says, “not so fast.”

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