Watch the Cowboys Without Cable

Do You Need Cable to Watch the Cowboys?

I don’t know about you, but I’m on my knees giving thanks that football is back. This offseason seemed longer and more painful than ever. But that’s all coming to an end.

With the season beginning, fans are looking for ways to watch the Cowboys games. Some opt for cable packages or DirecTV, but a growing segment are getting sick of paying outrageous prices for terrible customer support. CutCableToday have put together an in depth guide for watching NFL online and over-the-air without cable.

But if you’re looking specifically for Cowboys games, you might want something a little more pinpointed. So here’s a rundown for you guys.

Using an Antenna

First and foremost, if you’re a diehard home team fan, the easiest way to watch your local team is with an antenna. If you live in the Dallas market, you’ll be able to see a live local broadcast of every game. That includes the Monday Night Football games on ESPN, as TV rights dictate that a local affiliate must simulcast. If you need to figure out what antenna will work best for your location, you can enter your address here.

Can You Watch the Cowboys Online?

If an antenna won’t work for you (or you just can’t stomach dealing with hooking one up and trying to find the right placement), then you have a few options online. The first is a streaming service called Sling TV. Sling TV basically lets you live stream cable channels without actually having cable. They offer different skinny bundle packages that can run you anywhere from $20-$40 a month.

Sling TV has two base packages, Sling Orange and Sling Blue. Sling Orange is $20 a month, and it carries ESPN. This gives you Monday Night Football on a weekly basis, along with select preseason games. For Cowboys fans, that includes the August 13^th Cowboys vs. Rams preseason game, along with the Cowboys Dec. 26^th MNF appearance.

The Sling Blue package includes FOX and NBC locally in select markets, one of which is Dallas. It also now includes the NFL Network (which gets you at least two Cowboys preseason games). This is pretty badass because it’s currently the only way to get NFL Network without cable. The Sling Blue package will run you $25 per month.

Here’s a quick look at which Cowboys games are featured on those stations:

Sunday Sept. 11 against the Giants (FOX)

Sunday Sept. 18 against the Redskins (FOX)

Sunday Sept. 25 against the Bears (NBC)

Sunday Oct. 2 against the 49ers (FOX)

Sunday Oct. 16 against the Packers (FOX)

Sunday Oct. 30 against the Eagles (NBC)

Sunday Nov. 6 against the Browns (FOX)

Sunday Nov. 13 against the Steelers (FOX)

Thursday Nov. 24 against the Redskins (FOX)

Thursday Dec. 1 against the Vikings (NBC/NFL Network)

Sunday Dec. 11 against the Giants (NBC)

Sunday Dec. 18 against the Bucs (FOX)

Sunday Jan. 1 against the Eagles (FOX)

So that’s the majority of the season, minus MNF and the two CBS games. Keep in mind, if you didn’t want to pay for the Sling Orange package all season long, you could just pick it up for the month that the Cowboys are playing on MNF. There are no contracts.

Either way, that leaves Dallas residents with only two games they would need to find another way to watch… the CBS games. Unfortunately, there isn’t a legal way to get those online at this time.

If you’re a Dallas fan outside of the Dallas Market, you’d need to check the Sling TV site to see if FOX and NBC are available in your market (it varies).

Another streaming service, PlayStation Vue, offers something very similar to Sling TV. In Dallas, $40 per month will get you essentially the same thing as Sling Orange + Sling Blue, minus the NFL Network. However, you will get a cloud DVR with it, which is pretty useful.

Now it’s worth mentioning that Vue is supposed to be adding the NFL Network, but they haven’t indicated exactly when (should occur by the regular season though). I’m also uncertain as to which package they will add it to.

You can check out what’s available on Vue in your area here.

Can You Stream NFL Sunday Ticket without a Contract?

NFL Sunday Ticket is available to some people online as a standalone streaming service. The two main groups who can take advantage of this are people who live in an area where you can’t use a satellite dish, or college students (both 2-year and 4-year students). If you think one of those might apply to you, you can call and get more details at 888-648-7389.

What about NFL Game Pass?

So if you didn’t know, the NFL has their own streaming service, NFL Game Pass. The catch? Here in the US, games aren’t available until after they air. So it’s great if you’re someone who watches after-the-fact due to work or whatever. But it might not work out for you otherwise.

That being said, the international version of Game Pass does in fact play all games during the season live. So if you’re a Cowboys fan overseas, or now even in Mexico, you can get Game Pass and see every game live.

So that’s about it. Antenna + Sling is probably your best bet. Don’t forget both Sling and Vue are available with free one-week trials. So you could try out each and see which you like best.

Need more info on the NFL Preseason? I glossed over it a bit here, but you can check out the specifics in this NFL Preseason guide for cordcutters.