The NFC will be in the spotlight on Thanksgiving, although only two NFL teams with winning records will play. While last year’s Thanksgiving slate featured five teams with winning records and important divisional matchups between the teams at the top of the NFC East and NFC West, the games aren’t as crucial this year.
Thanksgiving football 2015 schedule: Panthers, Packers headline holiday NFL games
The Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers are the headliners in a slate of Thanksgiving football games that also includes two college matchups.
Kicking off the day's football action is a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions. After a 1-7 start, the Lions earned back-to-back wins, but are still tied for the worst record in the conference. However, they're only one game behind the Eagles, who have back-to-back losses. Mark Sanchez is expected to start for the Eagles, three years after his infamous Buttfumble on Thanksgiving in 2012. He also started on the holiday last year for Philadelphia in a 33-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
The Cowboys will look to improve to 4-0 with Tony Romo in the starting lineup, but it will be a tall task against the undefeated Carolina Panthers. Cam Newton is putting together a solid case for NFL MVP with 20 passing touchdowns and six rushing touchdowns on a team that has lackluster wide receivers for him to work with.
In addition to the NFL action, there will be two college football games. One features a bowl-eligible South Florida team that shouldn’t have much trouble staying in the hunt in the American Athletic Conference’s East Division against a winless UCF. In the other, Texas will look to make up for its 48-10 beatdown at the hands of TCU on Thanksgiving in 2014 by clinging to a chance at bowl eligibility with a win over 6-5 Texas Tech.
The last NFL game of the day may be the best one now that the resurgent Chicago Bears have bounced back from an 0-3 start to climb to 4-6. Over the last seven games, no team has beaten the Bears by more than three points. However, knocking off the 7-3 Packers at Lambeau Field is a tall order. After losing three straight games, the Packers returned to form with a 30-13 win over the Vikings in Week 11 and need to keep finding wins to keep a hold on the NFC North lead.
TV Schedule
| NFL | Eagles at Lions | 12:30 p.m. ET | FOX | FOX Sports Go | Joe Buck, Troy Aikman |
| NFL | Panthers at Cowboys | 4:30 p.m. ET | CBS | CBSSports.com stream | Jim Nantz, Phil Simms |
| CFB | South Florida at UCF | 7:30 p.m. ET | ESPN | Watch ESPN | Joe Tessitore, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack |
| CFB | Texas Tech at Texas | 7:30 p.m. ET | Fox Sports 1 | FOX Sports Go | Tim Brando, Spencer Tillman |
| NFL | Bears at Packers | 8:30 p.m. ET | NBC | NBC Sports Live Extra | Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth |
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