On Thanksgiving Day, the Dallas Cowboys underscored their seriousness about the 2025 season with a 31-28 victory over the Chiefs, giving them wins over the last two Super Bowl champs four days apart. As the rest of the final weekend of November played out, however, the club’s status changed.

The Cowboys are not really a genuine wild-card contender. They are very much alive, however, in the NFC East. That crazy statistic about no team having won the East in consecutive seasons since 2004 is suddenly back in play.

At 6-5-1, the Cowboys have a better chance of catching the Philadelphia Eagles than they do of running down any of the wild-card contenders. The Cowboys were part of an upset special Thursday when Green Bay, Cincinnati and Dallas all beat favored teams. When the Chicago Bears surprisingly continued that trend in a Black Friday game at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ lead over Dallas fell to 1 1/2 games. It had been 3 1/2 games just five days earlier.

Eagles fans fear they have seen this story before. And it’s one of an epic collapse. In 2023, coming off of a Super Bowl loss to Kansas City — a game the Eagles had tied with five minutes to play — Philadelphia began the next season on a 10-1 tear. It was a house of cards. The Eagles were winning close games by the thinnest of margins, the luckiest turn of events. When the skid came, they finished 11-6 and were blown out at Tampa Bay in a first-round playoff loss.

That season the Cowboys trailed Philly by two games with six to play and didn’t exactly go strutting down the stretch, losing consecutive games in Buffalo and Miami. But that 4-2 finish was enough to get to 12-5 and take the East back from the fading Eagles.

Can something similar happen over the next five weeks? The answer is yes, but first let’s examine why that is the Cowboys’ only practical hope for postseason play.

San Francisco has looked like a vulnerable wild-card team all season with its abundance of injuries that include lots of comings and goings among receivers and the loss of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, their two best defenders, for the season. And leading Cleveland just 10-8 at halftime, maybe the Browns and their powerful defense would knock off the 49ers and help the wild-card cause. A fumble and a muffed punt changed all that, setting up two touchdowns and allowing San Francisco to roll on to a 9-4 record.

It’s unrealistic to think Dallas can catch any of the three West contenders — Rams and Seahawks at 9-3 and 49ers at 9-4. Add to that the Bears and Packers’ victories that leave those NFC North rivals at 9-3 and 8-3-1. All of these teams battling for the three wild-card spots in the conference have better records than the Eagles, not to mention nothing resembling Philly’s sluggish offense.

Hard to believe that the team that led the Chiefs 40-6 in last year’s Super Bowl looks so inept for such long stretches on offense. The Cowboys are the only team the Eagles scored 21 points against in their last four games. And they finished here with 41 scoreless minutes. They didn’t get their next touchdown until nearly 37 minutes deep into the Chicago game (a five-quarter stretch against the Cowboys and Bears in which they scored three points) when suddenly Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown remembered how to connect play after play.

So what lies ahead?

The Cowboys obviously have to continue their three-game win streak Thursday night in Detroit, and even with the Lions falling to the Packers, this is the toughest game remaining on Dallas’ schedule. Might even be the last time they are an underdog, pending how the Chargers are playing when they come to Dallas Dec. 21. The Cowboys will be solid favorites in all the rest against New York, Washington and the awful Minnesota Vikings, although Sunday night’s overtime game with Denver reminded us that it’s not smart to simply assume a Cowboys’ win on Christmas Day in Landover. And the Eagles have two games remaining against Washington.

Philadelphia’s schedule is slightly tougher, facing their two best opponents — the Chargers Monday night and Buffalo Dec. 28 — on the road. Even if you give the Eagles layups against the Commanders twice and the Raiders, they would have to play a lot better than they did at home against Chicago to win in LA.

So it’s not impossible by any means for the Cowboys to take a 3 1/2 game deficit and trim it to a single 1/2 game in barely two weeks. But they have work to do in Detroit, and as good as the Cowboys are properly feeling after knocking off the Eagles and Chiefs, beating a good team on the road is something Dallas has not accomplished in more than a year.

The Cowboys are back in the East race, to be sure. Now they have to do the rest.

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Founded decades earlier as Bethel Baptist Tabernacle, the church in Far East Dallas had been shrinking for years. Leaders had tried to attract new worshippers to its sanctuary on Ferguson Road, but membership dwindled until it was down to a few dozen people in the early 2020s.

Mike Chism, a former associate pastor whose grandfather was a charter member of Bethel, said remaining members decided to merge with a church in Mesquite. That left Bethel with a four-acre campus of sturdy, cream-colored brick buildings surrounded by expansive parking lots they needed to sell.

The situation could have deteriorated into another disheartening story about a dying church with an empty building that decays into a neighborhood eyesore.

Instead, it’s an encouraging tale of a church determined to see something good grow on its former property and a watchful nonprofit, the Ferguson Road Initiative, that helped ensure its redevelopment fit the area’s needs. In a city where strident NIMBYism often obstructs redevelopment, it’s a story where NIMBY never happened.

“We had been members of [the Ferguson Road Initiative],” Chism said. “They were aware that we were struggling and needed help figuring out what we wanted to do with the property. They put us in touch with a developer.”

Bethel sold the property to a local developer active in the area and committed to building homes for middle-income families. The deed transferred in March. Proceeds from the sale went to the congregants’ new church home in Mesquite.

Dallas County commissioners agreed in November to kick in $1 million to help pay for underground infrastructure. By mid-2027, construction should be underway on 53 new, single-family, detached townhomes that police officers, teachers and social workers could afford to buy.

“We are absolutely committed to building ‘missing middle’ housing in this community,” said Vikki Martin, the initiative’s executive director.

Her organization’s involvement helps explain why the deal progressed relatively smoothly. The Ferguson Road Initiative has been steadily organizing neighborhood associations and crime watch groups since 1998. It does not run programs; it convenes meetings and coaches local leaders. When there’s a zoning change request, or a major property for sale, the initiative has a process to ensure local residents help guide what happens next.

Martin’s group will arrange a preliminary meeting to bring together the developer, property owner, neighborhood association leaders, relevant City Council and Plan Commission members and a few others. The leaders take the information back to their associations and solicit comment. The process leaves room for reasonable discussion and compromise.

“It’s all very organized,” Martin said. “There’s no yelling.”

The vacant church, with its distinctive, blocky tower, still stands near the intersection of North Buckner Boulevard and Ferguson Road. After it’s gone, something very different, but very much needed, will rise in its place. Bethel’s final legacy in Dallas will be new homes and an example of how redevelopment can grow from trust and goodwill.

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DALLAS – A cold front that moved through the region on Thursday brought scattered rain and thunderstorms, leaving some areas with more than an inch of rainfall while others saw little to none.

Sunday Forecast

Early morning temperatures fell below freezing in several areas, including a low of 29 degrees at Possum Kingdom Lake. Dallas dipped to 34 degrees, while Cedar Creek Reservoir reported 40 degrees. 

Strong winds are adding to the chill, pushing wind chills into the 20s across much of North Texas. Some areas reported “feels like” readings in the upper teens. 

Dig deeper:

Clouds will linger through the day as the system moves east, contributing to significant travel impacts across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where rain is transitioning to sleet and snow. The upper-level low spinning over the Great Lakes is expected to continue producing snow in that region.

Monday forecast

Locally, North Texas is not expected to see major issues heading into the weekend. Forecasters say a southwest flow aloft will keep cloud cover in place and may produce isolated showers on Monday. 

Temperatures should stay above freezing, preventing any wintry precipitation. Rain chances remain low, about 20 to 30 percent, and will be scattered.

7-Day Forecast

Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be quieter, with a gradual warmup returning highs to the 50s on Tuesday and near 60 on Wednesday. Another stronger system arrives Thursday, bringing a better chance for widespread rain and thunderstorms before drying conditions return Friday.

While temperatures will fluctuate throughout the week, forecasters say the overall trend features more cold days than warm ones. The upcoming weekend, however, is expected to offer calmer weather and near-normal temperatures.