Dallas Cowboys are looking to beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville for the first time ever

This Sunday the Dallas Cowboys will visit the Jacksonville Jaguars which is something that has not happened in a very long time. While the NFL instituted a 17th game beginning in 2021 that will see NFC and AFC teams play each other a bit more frequently (contingent upon results of seasons), from realignment in 2002 through 2020 teams only visited teams from the opposing conference once every eight years.

Obviously we are interested in the Dallas Cowboys more than anything so we will use them as an example. In that 2020 season the Cowboys visited the Cincinnati Bengals (picking one of their two road AFC games) and did so for the first time since 2012. Prior to then their most recent visit to Cincinnati had been in 2004, every eight years since realignment as noted.

While all of this is true, when the Cowboys visit the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday it will be their first trip to Duval County in much longer than that, though.

The Dallas Cowboys are looking to beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville for the first time ever

You did not misread that. This Sunday will mark the first Dallas Cowboys game in Jacksonville, Florida in 16 years. Dallas has not visited Jacksonville since 2006.

How is that possible? How could the Cowboys go double the standard length before visiting the Jaguars in Jacksonville once again? You will recall that the Cowboys “visited” the Jaguars in 2014, but the issue is that while that was a home game for the Jaguars, it was played in London. Remember Dez Bryant going off?

Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Since that was the team’s last regular season visit to Jacksonville and since it did not occur in Jacksonville, that makes this weekend’s trip there the first one for the team since 2006 as noted.

You may remember that the 2006 game in Jacksonville wound up as a Cowboys loss and it dropped them to 0-1 on the season. That is right, the Cowboys opened their 2006 season on the road against the Jaguars and did so with Terrell Owens playing his first game for the team for full context at how long ago it was.

This was the final season that Bill Parcells coached the Cowboys and while they did make the playoffs as a Wild Card team, they did start off in an 0-1 hole. Tony Romo took over as the team’s starting quarterback seven weeks after Dallas’ trip to Florida, so it was Drew Bledsoe throwing to T.O. early on and in these shockingly-grainy highlights.

Since the Jaguars are a relatively newer team to the NFL than most, the Cowboys have only visited them twice throughout history and one of them was in London as noted. This means that Sunday will be only the second time ever that the Jacksonville fans will get a chance to see the Dallas Cowboys in their home building.

Additionally, since the Cowboys lost their only true trip to Jacksonville they are looking to win there for the first time in franchise history.