The Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys put on a show on Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium. In a seesaw affair, the Dolphins delivered a Christmas present a day early to their fans with a 22-20 win on a walk-off 29-yard field goal by Jason Sanders.
As it turns out, a whole lot of people tuned in to see the game. According to Fox Sports, it was the highest rated game in FOX's "America's Game of the Week" since 1995.
As the release notes, the game was also the most watched game in the NFL this season for all games outside of Thanksgiving. That includes the Thursday night season opener and opening weekend. It was up over 13% from the same date a year ago.
Although the 31.518 million viewers is a staggering number, it's not too hard to understand why this game drew so well. Both fan bases have big followings spread across the country, especially the Cowboys. Both teams boast offenses among the most productive and exciting in the league. Both teams are in the thick of their division and conference races, so several rivals have rooting interests.
It's also a matchup that doesn't happen all that often. The Cowboys and Dolphins have met just 6 times since the turn of the century. The Dolphins defeated the Cowboys 40-21 on Thanksgiving in 2003, with Dallas winning the next four straight until the Dolphins' win on Sunday.
And, oh yeah, the broadcast range for the game was particularly wide for this time slot, as Arizona vs. Chicago was the only other FOX 4:00 pm time slot game happening. Outside of a small part of the Midwest near Chicago and most of Arizona, Dallas-Miami was the literally the only game in town for folks tuning in on FOX.
That said, it's highly unlikely it was the first such widespread broadcast over the last 28 years, so that still speaks to the allure of the matchup.
Now both teams will try to take the next steps towards setting up a rematch in Las Vegas in February.
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