The battle for Texas will begin in earnest on Thursday night, as the Houston Texans will visit the Dallas Cowboys at the JerryDome for their final preseason game in Week 4 and both teams come in having won two games, with the Cowboys having already played in the Hall of Fame game on top of the regular preseason schedule.

Both teams are coming into the preseason thinking Super Bowl and when they meet on Thursday it will likely be mostly backups playing for jobs rather than names like Tony Romo, Andre Johnson and Arian Foster getting work. The Cowboys opened the preseason with the Hall of Fame game and defeated the Dolphins 24-20 in Canton to get things started off right, but that ended quickly after and ugly 19-17 loss to the Oakland Raiders the next week.

Click here for the Dallas and Houston live stream or for more on the preseason from Sports World Report.

The Cowboys then played another sloppy game in a 12-7 loss against the Cardinals on the road before beating the Bengals at home 24-18 last week and now they will get the AFC South champs in the Texans for the final game of the preseason. Last year Tony Romo and Dez Bryant put up some fantastic numbers, but the running game suffered injuries and did not work as well as Jason Garrett would have hoped and now the team must figure out how to get back on track in 2013 to keep the offense more consistent.

The Cowboys will have a stiff test to open the year, as the Giants will return the favor from last season and will travel to Dallas to play in Week 1. Last year the Giants lost their first game at home after winning the Super Bowl and fell to the Cowboys and now they will try and do the same on opening night for the teams, which will be a Sunday night contest and a good one most likely, as these NFC East matchups usually are.

Eli Manning will be looking to start the season off right and so are the Cowboys and this could be a make or break year for Jason Garrett, as Jerry Jones is getting impatient and Tony Romo is getting older despite signing a new extension. The Cowboys will play against the Chiefs at Arrowhead next before coming home to host the Rams and that could be an interesting matchup with Jeff Fisher leading the way. The road game against the Chargers comes next before the team hosts the Denver Broncos and then they will play RGIII and the Redskins at home, always a tough task.

The Cowboys will then travel to Philly for an NFC East game against the Eagles and then will travel to play the Lions before returning home for the Vikings in Week 9. The team plays former d-coordinator Rob Ryan in the next week for a road game against the New Orleans Saints and that could end up being one of the most entertaining games of the year and that comes right before their bye week. The team then travels to NY to play the Giants and then will host the Raiders.

The Bears and Cowboys will go at it on Monday night football on Week 14 and then the team will host the Green Bay Packers in what will be a tough stretch to finish the season. The team must travel to Washington the next week and the will finish again with an NFC East opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles at home.

Click here for the Cowboys live stream coverage.