Governor's Cup (Texas)

Governor's Cup (Texas)
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
First meeting 1965
Latest meeting Octber 7, 2018
Texans 19, Cowboys 16
Next meeting TBA
Statistics
All-time series
  • Texans lead Cowboys , 8–7
  • Cowboys lead Oilers, 18–13
Largest victory
  • Cowboys (over Texans): 34–6 (October 15, 2006)
Current win streak
  • Texans: 1 win

The Texas Governor's Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the football game between the two National Football League (NFL) teams in Texas, currently the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans. Prior to the Texans' inaugural season in 2002 the Cowboys' opponent was the Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans). In 1991, after 13 straight games at the Cowboys' Texas Stadium, the Cowboys and Oilers went to a home-and-away format for the preseason and this format more or less continues to this day for the games between the Cowboys and Texans.[1][2]

Since the very first meeting between the Cowboys and Texans in 2002 the two teams have met in the regular season every fourth year and meet relatively often (by NFL standards) in the preseason; from 2002 until 2008 and again since 2013, the Cowboys and Texans have been scheduled to play each other in the preseason whenever they are not scheduled to meet in the regular season. In 2010, the teams played both a pre-season and regular season game while in 2009, 2011 and 2012 they did not meet at all. The 2017 preseason game, scheduled to be played in Houston, was cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey. In 2018, the teams will play both a pre-season and regular season game once again, marking the first time that this instance of two games in one year has happened since 2010.

History

In 1965, the American Football League (AFL)'s Houston Oilers and NFL's Dallas Cowboys both drafted Oklahoma tackle Ralph Neely. The Oilers sued the Cowboys over Neely's services. In the settlement of the case, the Oilers received three Cowboys draft picks in addition to a cash settlement. The Cowboys also agreed to play five preseason games, three in Houston, against the Oilers. Thus began the Governor's Cup series, a Texas tradition created by franchise free agency.[3]

In 1992 the Cowboys and Oilers met twice in the preseason. The first game took place in Tokyo as part of the NFL's American Bowl series, and the second meeting in Dallas for the Governor's Cup.

The 1994 Governor's Cup was not actually played in Texas but in Mexico City at Estadio Azteca as part of the American Bowl series. As a result of Estadio Azteca's unusually large seating capacity, a league record 112,246 fans watched the Oilers shut out the Cowboys, 6–0 on August 13, 1994.[4]

From 1997 to 2001 there were no Governor's Cup games played. This was because the Oilers moved to Tennessee after the 1996 season and the Texans wouldn't enter the NFL as an expansion team until 2002, leaving the Cowboys as the lone team in Texas for five straight seasons.

Governor's Cup win/loss to 1996

Up to the 1996 season, the Dallas Cowboys had won 18 of 31 Governor's Cup meetings leaving the Houston Oilers with 13 Governor's Cup wins.[5]

Governor's Cup results since 2002

The Texans joined the NFL as an expansion team for the 2002 season. Since then, the Texans lead in the series overall at 8–7 as of the start of the 2018 season. The Texans lead the pre-season series at 6–4 and the Dallas Cowboys lead the regular season series 3–2.

Game summaries

DateVisiting teamHome teamStadiumRegular season / Preseason
September 8, 2002Dallas Cowboys 10Houston Texans 19NRG StadiumRegular season game.
August 15, 2003Houston Texans 6Dallas Cowboys 34Texas StadiumPreseason game.
August 14, 2004Dallas Cowboys 0Houston Texans 18NRG StadiumPreseason game.
August 15, 2005Houston Texans 9Dallas Cowboys 21Texas StadiumPreseason game.
October 15, 2006Houston Texans 6Dallas Cowboys 34Texas StadiumRegular season game.
August 25, 2007Dallas Cowboys 16Houston Texans 28NRG StadiumPreseason game.
August 22, 2008Houston Texans 22Dallas Cowboys 23Texas StadiumPreseason game.
August 28, 2010Dallas Cowboys 7Houston Texans 23NRG StadiumPreseason game.
September 26, 2010Dallas Cowboys 27Houston Texans 13NRG StadiumRegular season game.
August 29, 2013Houston Texans 24Dallas Cowboys 6AT&T StadiumPreseason game.
October 5, 2014Houston Texans 17Dallas Cowboys 20 (OT)AT&T StadiumRegular season game.
September 3, 2015Houston Texans 14Dallas Cowboys 21AT&T StadiumPreseason game.
September 1, 2016Houston Texans 28Dallas Cowboys 17AT&T StadiumPreseason game.
August 31, 2017 Dallas Cowboys Houston Texans Cancelled due to Hurricane Harvey[upper-alpha 1] Preseason game.
August 30, 2018[8] Dallas Cowboys 6 Houston Texans 14 NRG Stadium Preseason Game
October 7, 2018 Dallas Cowboys 16 Houston Texans 19 (OT) NRG Stadium Regular Season Game

Notes

  1. ↑ The game was to be moved from its original venue, NRG Stadium, to the Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, due to public safety concerns regarding flooding in the Houston area from the remnants of Hurricane Harvey.[6] The game was later cancelled to allow the Texans players to return to Houston after the storm.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "NFL ANNOUNCES 2002–2009 SCHEDULE ROTATION". footballinjuries.com. Archived from the original on 2009-06-20.
  2. ↑ Wangrin, Mark (August 3, 1990). "Governor's Cup game moved; Cowboys-Oilers exhibition series switches to Astrodome in '91". Austin American-Statesman. p. D7.
  3. ↑ Texas Sports News Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ The Worlds Biggests
  5. ↑ "Express-News Archives : MySA.com".
  6. ↑ "Cowboys-Texans game relocated to AT&T Stadium". NFL.com. August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  7. ↑ Epstein, Jori (August 30, 2017). "Cowboys-Texans game canceled to give Houston players chance to go home after Harvey". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  8. ↑ Hill, Clarence, Jr. (April 11, 2018). "Dallas Cowboys: Preseason schedule includes Texans..." star-telegram.com.
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