NEW ORLEANS, LA — Three NFL games are on the schedule on Thanksgiving Day with the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys among the teams in action on Thursday.
New Orleans (9-1), which is the ESPN’s Power Rankings, will take a nine-game winning streak into today’s highlighted Turkey Day fixture with the Atlanta Falcons (4-6) at Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
Live coverage of this game is scheduled for 8:30 pm ET and live streaming will be on NBCSports.com and the NBC Network.
Since dropping their first game of the season to the Buccaneers, Drew Brees and the Saints have been very impressive and coming off a dominating 48-7 smashing of Philadelphia last Sunday.
In that game, Brees passed for 363 yards and four touchdowns, and according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, New Orleans should have it easy again after being back at 80 percent to win its 10th straight this season.
“With Drew, you’re never covered in his eyes. He knows how to manipulate the defense to put the ball where only you can get it and no one else gets it,” Saints rookie WR Tre’Quan Smith said according to ESPN.
“As a young receiver I need that because my game isn’t all the way there. So I have a quarterback that can put it somewhere where only I can get it, it’s wonderful.”
Meanwhile, the Falcons enter this game on a two-game losing streak, including a 22-19 loss to the Dallas Cowboys the last time out and they will be hoping to snap this skip.
Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan is confident Atlanta can turn it around.
“I think the opponent we’re going against, the stage that it’s on, makes it pretty easy to be able to turn around quickly and put this one behind us,” Ryan said after the Dallas defeat.
“We’ve got to win,” Falcon tackle Jake Matthews said in the buildup. “We just have to prepare well this week. We aren’t going to drink some magic potion and it’s going to happen.
“We have to take what we do during the week and execute better during the game because we have a good game plan and have good things going at times. We just have to do it more consistently and finish more drives.”
Meanwhile, the Thanksgiving Day fixtures will kick-off at 12:30 when the improving Chicago Bears take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on CBS.
Chicago (7-3) has won four straight coming into this one, but is expected to be without quarterback Mitchell Trubisky.
Trubisky, who has passed for 2,469 yards and 20 touchdowns so far this season, suffered a shoulder injury in the latter part of Sunday’s 25-20 victory over the Minnesota Vikings and is still struggling with his finest.
In fact, ESPN is now reporting that the Bears will start Chase Daniel at quarterback.
Detroit (4-6) snapped a three-game losing streak with a narrow hold 20-19 win against the Carolina Panthers last Sunday.
Entering this game, the Lions will be without running back Kerryon Johnson and wide receiver Marvin Jones who are out because of knee injuries.
The other NFL Thanksgiving Day game will see Dallas Cowboys (5-5) meeting the Washington Redskins (6-4) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex.
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, the Cowboys have a 74.2 percent chance of beating Washington at home.
This game is set for 4:30 PM ET and it will be live on Fox and streaming on FoxSportsGo.com.
