The Cowboys–Patriots rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots. The series is lead 9-6 by the Cowboys. It is one of the great inter-division rivalry games in the NFL. The two teams do not play every year; instead, they play once every 4 years due to the NFL's rotating division schedules, or if the two teams finish in the same place in their respective divisions in the year before the 17th game meeting based on the formula two years prior, they would play the ensuing season.[1] Sports Illustrated ranked it as the eighth best rivalry while the NFL Top 10 ranked this rivalry to be the tenth best in the NFL. The rivalry was also the subject of two 2015 episodes of NFL Network's The Timeline series.
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| First meeting | October 24, 1971
New England Patriots 21, Dallas Cowboys 44 | ||
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| Latest meeting | October 1, 2023: Dallas Cowboys 38, New England Patriots 3 | ||
| Next meeting | 2023 | ||
| Statistics | |||
| Meetings total | 15 | ||
| All-time series | 9-6 (DAL) | ||