TAKING A CLOSER LOOK: Dissecting the Dallas Cowboys 2014 2015 regular season schedule | Dallas Cowboys Schedule 2014

The 2014 Dallas Cowboys schedule doesn’t have the mostly home-road-home-road pattern of the 2013 season, or the home opener and closer.

It’s back-loaded with road games.

But there are small advantages within it.

For one, the Dallas Cowboys don’t face any rested team coming off its bye week. No team will get the extra week to prepare for new defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli or play-caller Scott Linehan.

For another, the Dallas Cowboys don’t have to travel to a home opener in a rabid environment like last year, when they went to Kansas City and got ambushed. This season, the Cowboys are the home opener for Tennessee.

The Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers will be on equal footing, schedule-wise, when they open the season at AT&T Stadium. But when the Cowboys host the Saints on a Sunday night game in Week 4, it will be the third road game in four weeks for the Saints. The Saints will have opened with two on the road, at Atlanta and Cleveland, before their home opener.

The next week, the Texans will be in the same kind of stretch. They will come to AT&T Stadium for a third road game in four weeks, having gone to the West Coast for a game against Oakland then the East Coast to play the Giants before coming back for a home game.

And it happens one more time. Two weeks later, the New York Giants will also be on their third road game in four weeks when they come to Arlington. For the Giants, that road stretch is entirely against the NFC East – at Washington in Week 4, at Philadelphia in Week 6 and at the Cowboys in Week 7.

In Week 6, the Dallas Cowboys will face the 2013-2014 Super Bowl champs. But they’ll face a Seahawks team coming off a road Monday night game – a cross-country Monday night game, at that. The Seahawks will have played at Washington, so they’ll start their short week after a late East Coast finish.

In some ways, the schedule sets up. It may all mean nothing, or those small advantages could add up for an edge on a play here and there.

Whatever it means, the Dallas Cowboys will take anything they can get by the time they get to December and have to finish with their own stretch of three roadies in four weeks.

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RELATED: Notes on the Dallas Cowboys 2014 schedule

Some broadcast and historical notes related to the 2014 Dallas Cowboys schedule:

• The Dallas Cowboys are scheduled for six national telecasts.
• Five of the national telecasts are in prime time.
• The Cowboys will make their 76th Monday Night Football appearance, second most in league history behind Miami’s 80.
• The Cowboys have the most Monday night wins, 43.
• The Cowboys home opener is only their sixth in 15 seasons.
• The home openers in consecutive seasons are the Cowboys first since 2000 and 2001.
• The Cowboys and Eagles have not played on Thanksgiving since 1989.
• This is the 10th time the Cowboys will finish the regular season in Washington.

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RELATED: Looking for a December to Remember

The Dallas Cowboys schedule has a cold December in store.

The Cowboys finish with three road games in the season’s final month, when they must go to Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington.

The Washington game is the season finale, so the Cowboys won’t have the luxury of a home game to close the season like last year. They also had road division games to close the season in 2011 and 2012, losing both. Last year, with a chance to host Philadelphia in the season finale, the Cowboys lost that game, too.

The annual Thanksgiving Day game is against the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be the first time the Cowboys see the Eagles in 2014.

The Dallas Cowboys get a late start on division games. Their first NFC East game is in a Week 7 home game against the Giants.

Here’s an editable text version of the 2014 Dallas Cowboys schedule:

1	Sep 07	SF @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	3:25 PM	FOX
2	Sep 14	DAL @ TEN	LP Field	12:00 PM	FOX
3	Sep 21	DAL @ STL	Edward Jones Dome	12:00 PM	FOX
4	Sep 28	NO @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	7:30 PM	NBC
5	Oct 05	HOU @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	12:00 PM	CBS
6	Oct 12	DAL @ SEA	CenturyLink Field	3:25 PM	FOX
7	Oct 19	NYG @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	3:25 PM	FOX
8	Oct 27	WAS @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	7:30 PM	ESPN
9	Nov 02	ARI @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	12:00 PM	FOX
10	Nov 09	DAL @ JAC	Wembley Stadium	12:00 PM	FOX
11	Bye
12	Nov 23	DAL @ NYG	MetLife Stadium	7:30 PM	NBC
13	Nov 27	PHI @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	3:30 PM	FOX
14	Dec 04	DAL @ CHI	Soldier Field	7:25 PM	NFLN
15	Dec 14	DAL @ PHI	Lincoln Financial Field	7:30 PM*	NBC*
16	Dec 21	IND @ DAL	AT&T Stadium	3:25 PM*	CBS*
17	Dec 28	DAL @ WAS	FedExField	12:00 PM*	FOX*

Bold indicates home game | All times shown are based on Dallas clocks (God’s Country)

* Game times and television broadcasters are subject to NFL flex scheduling changes