Cowboys see ratings bump in Week 15 with prime-time win over the Raiders

The Dallas Cowboys are finally giving the NFL and television executives the one gift they want this holiday season: drama.

It certainly hasn’t been pretty, but America’s team has won its past three games, including a 20-17 win over the Raiders in prime-time on Sunday night. That game drew a 11.1 rating, which was the second highest total of Week 15 in the NFL, per Sportsmediawatch.com.

The 3:25 p.m. showdown between the Patriots and Steelers in Pittsburgh lived up to its game-of-the-year hype, as New England held on for a truly bizarre 27-24 victory in the contest’s final minutes. The game drew a colossal 15.2 rating, which is the NFL’s best total for the entire 2017 regular season.

That 11.1 rating for the Cowboys tied the team’s best total since the team suffered a humiliating 28-6 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers on Thanksgiving Day. After that game, Jason Garrett’s bunch fell to 5-6, and many assumed Dallas’ chances of a playoff berth were slim.

Three straight wins later, though, this team is 8-6. And if they win out and a few other things break their way, the Cowboys could steal a wild-card spot by season’s end.

That path will start with a showdown against the Seattle Seahawks on Christmas Eve in Dallas that serves as a partial play-in game for both teams.

This story was originally published December 19, 2017 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Cowboys see ratings bump in Week 15 with prime-time win over the Raiders."