Thanksgiving is an odd time to be watching the Raiders, and on Thursday in Dallas they made most of their fans rather sick, putting up a rather ugly fight in 24-7 loss to the Cowboys.

It was a rather workmanlike outing for the Cowboys vs a team that was coming off an upset win a week ago vs the Bengals. Tony Romo threw for 309 yards and two scores, and the offense piled up 494 yards in the 17-point win. Three running backs, Felix Jones, Marion Barber and Tashard Choice each ran for over 60 yards.

The Raiders, now 3-8 on the season, were held in check on offense all night. Bruce Gradkowski was just 18-for-35 for 200 yards and was sacked three times. The run game was not much better, as Justin Fargas had 63 yards on 12 carries.

Dallas got a 36-yard field goal from Nick Folk to open the scoring with :39 seconds left in the first quarter. Then they got a TD when Jones went for a 46-yard score to open up a 10-0 lead. The Raiders couldn’t do much of anything in the first half, as they punted on all of their first six possessions before the end of the half.

The team had just 31 offensive plays, and never had a drive over 30 yards. The Cowboys put the game away before half, as they went on a 7-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Romo hitting Miles Austin from 9-yards out to go up 17-0 with :31 seconds left before intermission.

The Raiders finally put a drive together in the second half, as they went on an 11-play, 88-yard drive that wrapped up with Gradkowski going 4-yards to rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey to make it 17-7. That would be as close as the Raiders would get all day.

Dallas’ defense held the Raiders down the rest of the way, as Oakland punted on three of their last four possessions. The Cowboys put any hopes away for the Raiders as they scored on a Romo to Roy Williams touchdown from 6 yards out with 13:12 left to make it 24-7.

The Raiders in the end couldn’t stop the big plays, allowing four of them in the first quarter and a half. They also had little offense that could put together solid enough drives to hold the off the Dallas offense. The team now at 3-8 would need a five-game winning streak and some help to even think about the postseason.