NFL Thanksgiving Day TV Schedule: Start Time and Channel For Steelers, Ravens, Cowboys and Raiders Holiday Game Thursday

The NFL is heading into Week 13 after the Monday night football matchup involving the Redskins and the 49ers and that means it's Thanksgiving Day football time and this year the Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders as well as the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers will all be playing in games that will air throughout the day.

The first game on the schedule has the Green Bay Packers visiting the Detroit Lions for a huge divisional game at Ford Field and that game could mark the return of Aaron Rodgers to the lineup after missing time with a collarbone injury. That game will be on FOX and is the first game on the schedule at 12:30 pm and the next matchup will be the Oakland Raiders taking on the Dallas Cowboys and that matchup will be starting up at 4:30 pm on CBS and will be at AT&T Stadium aka Jerry's World and that comes before the night game on the schedule.

The last game on Turkey day will be the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Baltimore Ravens and that game will be at M&T Bank Stadium starting up at 8:30 pm and is on NBC, giving all three major networks a game on the holiday. The Lions and Cowboys are the traditional Thanksgiving teams and the games this year come at a crucial time for both, as each are in tight divisional races and the Lions are coming in after two straight losses and now they have a huge divisional game on the schedule. The Cowboys are fortunate that the game is an out of conference, out of division game, but that doesn't mean the win over the raiders isn't important, as it would give the team two wins in a matter of days after beating the Giants at the very last second on Sunday.

The Lions have been wildly inconsistent this season and while they have two different winning streaks of two games, the rest of the schedule alternates wins and losses and on Thursday they will need to be at their best, especially if Green Bay has Rodgers back. The team didn't win last week against Minnesota, but they didn't lose either and now that tie could end up throwing a wrench in the division standings, because now that is one less loss that the Packers can get that the other teams will not have the advantage of having, unless they tie later in the season of course.

The Lions lost to the Buccaneers last week and the Steelers the week before that and in the previous two games they had solid wins over the Bears and the Cowboys and now they must try and rebound to stop the losing streak. The Cowboys come into the week in solid position after defeating the Giants and that likely dashed any hopes that New York will win the division and the Cowboys have a very tough schedule going forward, as they play the Chicago Bears on the road on Monday night football after the Thanksgiving game and then the team hosts the Packers. The Cowboys finish with games against the Redskins and the Eagles in the division and those should be crucial as well.