The Cowboys‘ game with the Green Bay Packers was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish. The two sides battled it out, with the game ending at 40-40, leaving fans on the edge of their seats. Other than the drama on the field, the match also became history, with record-breaking television viewership numbers and breaking records for NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast.

Incidentally, the Cowboys-Packers matchup became the most-watched overtime SNF game in the history of the league in 19 such games. The game had a viewership of 26.9 million, NBC Sports reported, which was the third-most-watched game of the season.

The Packers-Cowboys matchup became the most-watched overtime game in NBC Sunday Night Football history, surpassing the previous record of 26.6 million viewers. The new viewership high topped the legendary 2013 Week 12 comeback when Tom Brady’s New England Patriots erased a 24-0 deficit against Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos to win 34-31 in overtime.

The Brady-Manning clash had held the SNF overtime viewership record for over a decade, representing one of the greatest regular-season comebacks in NFL history. The fact that Packers-Cowboys exceeded those numbers demonstrates the enduring appeal of America’s Team and the drawing power of marquee NFC matchups.

Jerry Jones sure would be happy to know that, irrespective of his team’s performance, the viewership of his team hasn’t dipped at all. And a headline with Cowboys’ viewership reaching 26.9 million is surely going to make him grin ear to ear.

The league’s Cowboys-Eagles kickoff game on September 4 earlier had 28.3 million viewers with a 65-minute weather delay. Both games together capture the Cowboys’ magic for the national television audience, making Dallas an elite NFL ratings market.

Sunday Night Football got off to its strongest start in history in 2025, averaging 25.5 million viewers in its first four games, a 6% increase from a year ago and the largest opening stint in the 20-year NBC history of the franchise.

Week 1 alone averaged 22.5 million, a 5% increase from 2024 and a 19% increase from 2023. Four of the top five kickoff weekend games all hit over 20 million, and even the most-watched games featured the Cowboys.

The franchise has a history of dominating enormous audiences on Thanksgiving Day 2022. Dallas’ game against the New York Giants earned 42.1 million viewers, the largest for any regular-season game in history. The three Thanksgiving games on the day combined for 138 million viewers and demonstrated the Cowboys’ dominance of national ratings and football culture.

With all-time viewership well in place, the spotlight then turns to performance, and one player in particular: George Pickens.

Jerry Jones on George Pickens

Two days after the thrilling stalemate against Green Bay, Cowboys general manager and owner Jerry Jones commented on Pickens’ play in his weekly morning radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan. “He’s an exemplary teammate. He is exemplary in his work preparation, and you can see the results of that out there on Sundays, obviously. Reminds me a little of his weight has different contortions as he’s catching a ball. He can just catch the ball in any set of circumstances,” Jones said.

Pickens’ top game was in CeeDee Lamb’s role, when he posted two touchdowns and 134 yards in Week 4. Dallas had acquired Pickens from the Steelers for a third-round draft choice with the expectation that he was entering his final year under contract. Taking 2025 as his “prove it” year, Pickens rose to the challenge, vindicating the trade and receiving accolades from Jones.

Moving forward, the cap flexibility of the Cowboys enables them to have the luxury of keeping Pickens in the long term if his play stays where it stands today. Jones noted, “I’m proud to tell you that we’ve got some outstanding structure in our cap space that will allow us to do a lot of things that I didn’t think when we finished this time last year that we might have the room to do some of these things we’re talking about doing. We got it.” This will help in making intelligent moves, with building something around Pickens still being a possibility on the table.

In addition to offense, Jones spoke to the defense issues as well. Dallas ranks dead last in the NFL at 32nd in yards allowed per game, representing a complete defensive breakdown. Jones did see improvement in the Green Bay game, though, discussing big plays and gradual improvement throughout the game.

“If you felt it, even though they scored 40 points, our defense improved as that game went along right before your eyes,” Jones said. “And we did make some stops that were out there that were key stops against a fine offensive football team in Green Bay. So, I think your eyes didn’t betray you, and that we got better as that game went along. That’s what you’re looking for.”

While the Cowboys continue to hold sway in the ratings and the news, Jones’ comment about Pickens is evidence of the team’s double-edged mission: remaining relevant on the national scene and strategically building a roster that can translate interest into wins. With Dak Prescott performing at career-high all-time levels and with Pickens thrown into the equation as a proven commodity, the Cowboys are combining star talent with game-day production, fascinating fans and pundits alike.