Cowboys vs. Lions where to watch: NFL kickoff time, TV channel, live stream, spread, odds, prediction

FRISCO, Texas — Yes, it’s only Week 6, but the 3-1 Detroit Lions facing the 3-2 Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium may have as close to postseason energy as a middle-of-the-regular-season game can have.

Detroit comes back to the scene of its narrow defeat in Week 17 last season, a matchup that controversially ended with a 20-19 Dallas victory following the Lions attempting multiple failed two-point conversion tries in an effort to win the game in regulation.  

The Cowboys are simply trying to win a home game. They are off to a 3-0 start on the road in 2024, but they are 0-2 this year at AT&T Stadium and have lost three in a row in their own building, including the 48-32 NFC wild-card round defeat against the Green Bay Packers in January. Prior to the past three home games, Dallas had won 16 home games in a row with its last one coming in that Week 17 escape against the Lions. 

“We have a big challenge,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “We have to win a home game. We used to be pretty good at home. We need to win a home game. We really stress the importance of winning on the road, and we’re off to a good start. But we need to get that first home win.”

Cowboys’ last 19 home games

* Including postseason

Let’s take a look at the critical matchups involved for Detroit to secure a crucial win after its Week 5 bye and for Dallas to earn a victory entering its Week 7 bye. 

Cowboys vs. Lions where to watch

Date: Sunday, Oct. 13 | Time: 4:25 p.m. ET
Location: AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
Channel: FOX | Stream: fubo (try for free)
Follow: CBS Sports App   
Odds: Lions -3; O/U 52.5 (via SportsLine consensus)

When the Lions have the ball

Typically when you think of the Detroit offense, it’s the one-two punch of running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, plus their imposing offensive line led by All-Pro right tackle Penei Sewell. It makes sense. They’re once again a top-10 rushing offense, averaging 151.3 rushing yards per game (seventh-best in the NFL). Montgomery has a rushing touchdown in seven consecutive games dating back to last season, which is tied for the longest streak in Lions history. 

However, the headline of the Lions’ offense right now is obviously quarterback Jared Goff. He completed all 18 of his passes for 292 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-29 win over the Seattle Seahawks on “Monday Night Football” in Week 4. That performance set NFL all-time records for the most passes without an incompletion in a game and most passing yards in a game without an incompletion. 

“He’s playing the best of his career,” McCarthy said of Goff on Wednesday. “But I think really, as an offense, they are really in sync. They’ve been together a couple of years now. They play with a lot of confidence. Their time clocks are intact, their shifts and motions, the tempo. The numbers they put up are reflected by the video.”

When Goff does drop back to pass, the football is likely going to 2023 first-team All-Pro wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. His 38 targets account for 31.1% of the Lions’ team target share, which is the second-highest team target rate in the NFL, trailing only Minnesota Vikings All-Pro Justin Jefferson’s 33.9% figure. In 2024, a career-high 30.9% of St. Brown’s routes have come when aligned in the slot, which means he’ll see a healthy dose of Cowboys nickel corner Jourdan Lewis. 

St. Brown claimed Lewis said some of the craziest trash talk he has ever heard when the two matched up in Week 17 last season. 

“He was talking crazy out of pocket,” St. Brown said on “The Pivot” podcast this summer. “Even [Lions wideout Jameson Williams] heard it, too. He was coming in. At that point, it’s like, I don’t know what he’s saying. I’m trying to make plays, win the game. I’m not worried about him. But once he starts talking like that, it’s like, ‘All right, if I do get a chance to kill him, I’m a kill him.'”

Lewis recalled those comments Wednesday with a straight face.

“I just remember him going on a podcast trying to air me out. We’re going to play each other, so we’re going to see each other and we’re going to have a game together,” Lewis said. “We’re going to see what’s real and what’s not.”  

When asked what he might have said to St. Brown, Lewis claimed to have no idea. Lewis has surrendered just 3.4 yards per target as the nearest defender in coverage this season, the second-fewest among 28 slot cornerbacks with at least 10 targets, per NFL Pro Insights. Get your popcorn ready for Sunday.

“Sometimes I just black out and go somewhere else. Just go somewhere with it,” Lewis admitted Wednesday. “If I said anything disrespectful (to an opposing receiver), I’ll probably say it again.”  

He was potentially set to receive a boost in the secondary Sunday with the possible return of Cowboys 2023 first-team All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland. Bland, who led the NFL with nine interceptions in 2023, spoke to the media Thursday for the first time since suffering a stress fracture in his foot the last week of training camp. He practiced fully both Wednesday and Thursday, providing hope he could return before Dallas’ bye in Week 7. The team held him out Friday and officially listed him as questionable. However, Bland won’t be activated as Dallas waits until after its Week 7 bye week, ESPN reported Saturday.

In addition to Bland, Dallas ruled out starting linebacker Eric Kendricks with a shoulder injury and All-Pro Micah Parsons with a high ankle sprain. 

When the Cowboys have the ball

The Lions are a top-10 scoring defense, allowing 20.5 points per game (10th-fewest in the NFL). Their run defense is stout, allowing the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game in the league (90.8). And when opponents drop back to pass, they have to deal with the most productive pass rusher in football right now. Lions Pro Bowl edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson leads the NFL in sacks (6.5), quarterback hits (14) and quarterback pressures (40) this season, according to TruMedia, and that’s despite being on an early bye week in Week 5. 

“Obviously he’s an excellent, excellent player,” McCarthy said. “His get off, he’s doing the little things. Obviously his length, 6-foot-7, and he has a great motor. He has a patented move, the spin move, has been really productive for him. He’s got a relentless motor, and it’s definitely something you have to look out for without a doubt.” 

Despite the Cowboys starting two rookies at pivotal positions on their offensive line in 2024 first-round pick Tyler Guyton (left tackle) and 2024 third-round pick Cooper Beebe (center), Dallas is allowing the third-lowest quarterback pressure rate in the league this season (26.9%). That could spell trouble for a Lions defense that still struggles to defend the pass, allowing 258.3 passing yards per game, the sixth-most in the NFL. 

Dallas’ 2023 first-team All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, who led the league with 135 catches last season, torched Detroit for the best game of his career in the Week 17 matchup last season: he produced career-highs in catches (13) and yards receiving (227), including the longest receiving touchdown of his career (92 yards). 

“How electric the crowd was,” Lamb said Thursday when asked what he remembers from that night. “Obviously it was a night game and everything prior (Jimmy Johnson’s Ring of Honor night), too. The 92-yard touchdown, of course, that was a very memorable moment for me. Longest touchdown of my career, obviously. Just kind of executing any way that I could. I had obviously a great matchup, one on one. That was kind of before the cloud existed. I’m looking forward to it, man. I know they got a nice DB over there now in Carlton [Davis]. Saw him in Tampa, so looking forward to the matchup.”  

To Lamb’s point, Detroit’s secondary looks a little different in 2024. Lamb hauled in eight of his 10 targets against man coverage that night for 188 yards and a touchdown, the most such yards by a receiver in man coverage since 2018, according to NFL Pro Insights. Much of his production ocurred in matchups against cornerbacks Cameron Sutton and Kindle Vildor. Lamb caught all eight of his targets in man coverage against either of those two for 180 yards and a touchdown. However, Sutton is now a Pittsburgh Steeler, and Vildor is predominantly a Lions special teamer in 2024 with only eight coverage snaps this season. 

Lions general manager Brad Holmes traded a third-round pick to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for 27-year-old cornerback Carlton Davis, a starter on the Bucs’ Super Bowl LV championship team back in 2020. He’s the new CB1, and the Lions used their first two draft picks in 2024 on corners: they used their first-round selection on Alabama All-American Terrion Arnold and their second-round selection on Ennis Rakestraw Jr. out of Missouri. Davis’ 81.3 passer rating against as the primary defender in coverage ranks 34th out of 48 players this season with at least 25 passes thrown their way. Lamb could still feast. 

“The biggest thing with CeeDee is his opportunities,” McCarthy said. “We just got to keep finding ways to make sure he gets opportunities. That’s a great example of what he can do with the football.”

Cowboys vs. Lions prediction

This is a game that is shaping up to be a high-flying, back-and-forth affair with Prescott and Goff going pass for pass. The difference is that the Cowboys secondary with Diggs and Lewis has the personnel to create the one big takeaway required to seal a win in a game with two high-powered offenses. 

 Pick: Cowboys 31, Lions 28