Eagles-Cowboys: Game time, channel, how to watch and stream ‘Sunday Night Football’

For the first time in 652 days, Sunday Night Football is coming back to Philadelphia for tonight’s highly anticipated matchup between the Eagles (5-0) and the Dallas Cowboys (4-1).

NBC didn’t air a single Eagles game last season, the first time Philadelphia has been omitted from the league’s primetime showcase game since NBC took over Sunday Night Football from ESPN in 2006. But the Birds surprised most experts by making it to the playoffs last year, and are now the league’s only remaining undefeated team.

If the Eagles win, they’ll be 6-0 for just the third time in franchise history. The last time they hit that mark was in 2004, when they ended up in the Super Bowl. So expect Birds fans to be loud and engaged tonight at Lincoln Financial Field.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Cowboys predictions: Dallas goes down in our beat writers’ picks for Week 6

“I played them plenty of times in the regular season and in the Super Bowl, and those fans are absolutely crazy,” said Rodney Harrison, the two-time Super Bowl champ turned analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America. “One thing about Eagles fans, they always got their team’s back. It’s definitely going to be a wild one.”

Meanwhile, Cooper Rush is expected to make his fifth straight start at quarterback for the Cowboys Sunday, though the team did list Dak Prescott as questionable leading into the game. Prescott didn’t take any team snaps in practice this week and has missed four games as he recovered from surgery to fix a broken right thumb he suffered in Week 1.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Eagles-Cowboys matchup:

Eagles-Cowboys is scheduled to kick off at 8:20 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

Calling the game will be Mike Tirico, who took over this season for Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer on Sunday Night Football. He’ll be joined by longtime analyst Cris Collinsworth, who needs no introduction to Eagles fans. Melissa Stark will report from the sidelines at the Linc.

The game will also air on radio in Philadelphia on 94.1 WIP. On play-by-play will be Merrill Reese, who has been the voice of the Eagles since 1977, making him by far the longest tenured announcer in the NFL. He’s being joined by analyst Mike Quick, a former Eagles wide receiver who has been calling games alongside Reese for 25 seasons. WIP host Howard Eskin will report from the sideline.

Spanish-speaking listeners can tune into La Mega 105.7, where the game will be called by WIP host Rickie Ricardo, Oscar Budejen, and Bill Kulik.

Eagles vs. Cowboys will stream on the NBC Sports app, but you’ll need to be a cable subscriber to log in. You can also stream it on Peacock, which requires a subscription or a cable login.

The game will also stream on a host of so-called skinny bundles that carry Fox, including fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and DirecTV Stream. Most offer a free trial.

If you’re looking to stream the game for free, your best option if you live near Philadelphia is to use an over-the-air antenna.

Tirico, who took over this season for Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, is calling his first game in Philadelphia in six years. It will be his 10th game at Lincoln Financial Field and the 17th Eagles game he’s called over his career.

Naturally, he’s called his fair share of Eagles moments.

“We had the Monday night game in Washington where Michael Vick had like the best half of all time,” Tirico said in an interview with The Inquirer this week. “That’s one of those when the anniversary comes up, somebody tags me on social media going back to some of the plays. ... That night was super exciting.”

Tirico said as a national broadcaster, he’ll never know the Eagles as well as the local beat reporters or announcers like Reese. But he can offer a different perspective, thanks to the access granted by being an announcer on one of the NFL’s best TV packages.

“One thing about doing a national broadcast where it kind of balances a little bit is we can compare it to the Chiefs, with the Bills, or the best team’s in the league we’ve just seen in the last few weeks,” Tirico said.

“[Local reporters and announcers] also don’t have the same access we do. They haven’t gone to a Cowboys practice like we do before the game, or they haven’t visited with the Buccaneers three times this year,” Tirico added. “You get to see that stuff in person, and it makes that comparative on the national scale.”

» READ MORE: NBC’s Mike Tirico talks Eagles-Cowboys, going to the Phillies game, and his two lifelong Philly TV friends

Eagles staff writers Jeff McLane, EJ Smith, and Josh Tolentino will be covering the action live on Gameday Central. Smith and Tolentino will discuss the Eagles-Cowboys game at 7 p.m. prior to kickoff. Notes and observations about the game will be at Inquirer.com/Eagles. Don’t forget to subscribe to our free Sports Daily newsletter.

Here’s a rundown of the local and national NFL pregame shows offered by the major networks this week: