Team History in Thursday Games

[kleese]

Since the inception of the franchise in 1932, we have played 22 games on a Thursday. 12 of those games have been played on Thanksgiving and 10 have been played on non-holiday Thursdays. 

 

In those 22 games, we've only played 6 different teams: Cowboys (11), Giants (5), Vikings (3), Bears (1), Jets (1), Lions (1) 

 

8-14 overall 

4-1 at home

4-13 on road

4-8 on Thanksgiving 

4-6 non-Thanksgiving 

 

Most points scored: 41 (2020 at Dallas)

Most points allowed: 45 (2014 vs Giants)

Fewest points scored: 7 (2008 at Giants)

Fewest points allowed: 0 (1973 at Lions) 

 

Here is the all-time list, Thanksgiving games bolded

**Game I attended personally 

 

1937: W vs Giants 13-3

1968: L at Cowboys 29-20

1973: W at Lions 20-0 

1974: L at Cowboys 24-23

1978: L at Cowboys 37-10

1984: W at Vikings 31-17

1990: L at Cowboys 27-17 

1996: L at Cowboys 21-10

2002: L at Cowboys 27-20**

2003: W vs Jets 16-13

2007: W vs Bears 24-16 

2008: L at Giants 16-7

2012: W at Cowboys 38-31**

2013: L at Vikings 34-27 

2014: L vs Giants 45-14

2015: L at Giants 32-21

2016: L at Cowboys 31-26

2017: W vs Giants 20-10

2017: L at Cowboys 38-14**

2018: L at Cowboys 31-23

2019: L at Vikings 19-9

2020: W at Cowboys 41-16

 

--Interesting note is that the game in 1937 was the season opener-- which of course also means it was the first game we ever played as the Washington Redskins, having moved from Boston the previous off-season. 

 

--I wasn't alive, but for those of that were, I won't even mention the 1974 game...

 

--Do not recall why we would have been playing the Vikings on a Thursday night back in 1984. This was WAY before the Thursday night thing became the norm (2013 I believe). I want to say I've heard the reasoning behind this before, but I can't recall. 

 

--Little bit of a story on that 2002 game. Lived in Tulsa at the time with my wife-- still pretty much newlyweds. No kids, not a lot of extra money, etc. Her family lived in OKC (about a 2 hour drive) and she was looking forward to going back for Thanksgiving. But she surprised me with tickets to the game. Plan was to drive to Dallas from Tulsa early that morning, attend the game, and then drive back to OKC after the game and celebrate Thanksgiving the next day. I was super pumped. We had a fun day... this game still mattered at the time-- it was essentially our do or die game for that season. Game started very well-- and then, it went south. Biggest play was an interception by Danny Wuerful right to Roy Williams in the end zone. I was so frustrated and back then I made zero attempt to mask this frustration. We left a few minutes early and I handed my wife the keys and just said "you drive." I then proceeded to not speak during the drive home. Silence. About halfway there I realized my error. I could tell my wife was seething, but by then it was too late. From the minute the game ended until almost five hours later we proceeded in silence. It was induced by me-- but then it became awful FOR me. Bad, bad move on my part on a day where she had gone out of her way to do something nice for me. This remains perhaps the most angry she has ever been with me-- it lingered for several days. When she finally came around to talking to me again, she declared she would never attend a game with me in Dallas again. She held tight to this until 2013 when she relented. We lost that night as well, but I kept things in check on that one. 

 

--2012 might be the most fun I've ever had attending a game. We went to Dallas for a couple of days with my in-laws. My wife and mother-in-law went to the zoo with the kids that day and my father in law and I went to the game. I helped organize a huge ES tailgate that day and it was awesome. Met so many fellow fans/ES members that day and it was great. So much excitement about RG3 and then he took the field and delivered. Such a fun game and a rare happy memory for me attending games in Dallas. 

 

--The 2013 bugged me. That was the game where I still felt we could turn it around and then afterwards knew we wouldn't. Tough loss that night in what was a pretty entertaining game in Minny. 

 

Generally, I do NOT like playing on Thursday. I much prefer the normal Sunday routine. Thursday's just don't feel right to me. And losing on a Thursday is terrible. The worst. It almost feels like a double loss. You get robbed of a game that weekend and you also have the taste of loss lingering for longer than normal. On the flip side, a Thursday win is really nice. For example, if we win tonight, I will relax and enjoy the weekend games and build-up to Buffalo WAY more than if we lose-- and it differs from a normal Sunday feeling. I am glad we get Thursday out of the way early this year and don't have to mess with a Thanksgiving Game (hate playing on Thanksgiving). 

 

[SkinsGuy]

45 minutes ago, kleese said:

Do not recall why we would have been playing the Vikings on a Thursday night back in 1984. This was WAY before the Thursday night thing became the norm (2013 I believe). I want to say I've heard the reasoning behind this before, but I can't recall. 

 

Might've been some test to see if people were interested in Thursday night football.

 

Glancing through a couple of articles that still exist about the game here:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1984/11/30/redskins-hold-off-vikings-31-17-move-into-first/be3c3f3a-f855-4d02-a06e-723e4e21d0a9/

 

and here:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/30/sports/redskins-triumph-to-lead-division.html

 

They make no mention of a special  reason the game was played on Thursday night.

 

Might just be lost to time.

[Franklin60]

The league would occasionally have Thursday night games back then. I vividly recall an early season Eagles at Bills game in '81. I'm an Eagles fan who was going to college at the time. My friends went out to the pub that night (Thursday was always the big party night on campus because many students would go home on Friday for the weekend.) I stayed in my dorm room to watch the game all alone. The Eagles won so it was a great night.

 

I suspect that that Redskins night game was similarly arranged.

[kleese]

1 minute ago, Franklin60 said:

The league would occasionally have Thursday night games back then. I vividly recall an early season Eagles at Bills game in '81. I'm an Eagles fan who was going to college at the time. My friends went out to the pub that night (Thursday was always the big party night on campus because many students would go home on Friday for the weekend.) I stayed in my dorm room to watch the game all alone. The Eagles won so it was a great night.

 

I suspect that that Redskins night game was similarly arranged.

 

I also want to say the Bears played the Vikings in 1985 also on a Thursday night earlier in the season... the game where McMahon was hurt but played anyway....yep, it was week 3 that year (9-19) and it was one of the few games for the Bears in 85 that was ever in doubt. 

[Cooleyfan1993]

I thought that TNF game in 2013 was going to turn the season around as well. We had just beat the Chargers in a thrilling game in OT to win 30-24, and got to 3-5. We were up by 10 late against the Vikings 4 days later and had we won, we would’ve been 4-5. Would it have changed the results the rest of the season? Who knows. It was disappointing though....

[hail2skins]

Incredible that we have more wins on Thursday at FedEx (3) than we do on MNF there, and we've had to have played close to 25 MNF games there by now.

 

The 2014 Giants game makes this one ominous because I remember RG3 got injured early that season and Cousins came in and looked decent for a couple games, but was dreadful against NY. Let's hope TH is better tonight