Saints/Cowboys Pre-season Schedule Announced [NEWS RELEASE]

The New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys have announced their pre-season schedules for the upcoming season. Check out the news releases here.

From neworleanssaints.com - The New Orleans Saints will face four AFC opponents in their 2013 preseason schedule, including one contest at Houston that will be televised nationally on Sunday afternoon, August 25 by FOX Sports.

The Saints game at Houston marks the fourth consecutive season the team will appear on a nationally televised broadcast. In 2012, the Saints defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game 17-10 and also upended the Houston Texans 34-27.

The three games that are not nationally televised will be regionally televised on CST, with all four games on WVUE FOX-8. All games can be heard on the New Orleans Saints Radio Network (WWL 870 AM and 105.3 FM locally).

In their preseason opener, the Saints will host the Kansas City Chiefs at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. On September 23, 2012, the Chiefs defeated the Saints 27-24 in overtime at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. This will be the first time the Saints have hosted the Chiefs in the preseason since 1997. New Orleans owns a 5-4 lead in the preseason series. The contest will also mark the Chiefs debut of Kansas City head coach Andy Reid.

In the second week of the preseason, the Saints will host the Oakland Raiders at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. This will be the first time that the Saints have hosted the Raiders in the preseason, with the Saints holding a 3-2 edge in contests played in London, England and Oakland. The Saints defeated the Raiders, 38-17 last season, on November 18 at O.co Coliseum.

New Orleans travels to face the Texans at Reliant Stadium on Sunday, August 25 in a contest nationally televised on FOX (WVUE FOX-8 locally). Kickoff is 3:00 p.m. CT. The Saints and Texans have played each other every preseason since 2008, with the clubs splitting both their regular season (2-2) and preseason (3-3) meetings. In the 2012 nationally televised, prime-time meeting, the Saints scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter for the 34-27 win.

New Orleans will visit Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla. for the first time since capturing Super Bowl XLIV to face the Dolphins for their final preseason game. The Saints and Dolphins have played 20 times in the preseason with the Dolphins holding a 13-7 edge. The two clubs will also meet in the regular season at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

New Orleans went 2-3 in the 2012 preseason, having won at least two contests in every preseason since 2007.

The dates and times of the Kansas City, Oakland and Miami games will be announced at a later date.

IRVING, Texas - The 2013 regular season schedule is still yet to be unveiled, but the Dallas Cowboys now have an idea of what the preseason will hold.

The team announced the opponents and locations for its five preseason games Thursday afternoon, though the dates and times of those games is still to be determined.

The one certainty is that the Cowboys will kick off the preseason Aug. 4 on NBC against the Miami Dolphins in the Hall of Fame Game. The Cowboys will travel to Canton, Ohio, to take on the Dolphins two weeks after the start of training camp - tentatively scheduled to begin July 19 in Oxnard, Calif.

After returning to training camp, the Cowboys face two preseason road games - a trip to play the Oakland Raiders followed by a game against the Arizona Cardinals the following week.

With camp scheduled to break Aug. 17, the Cowboys return to Dallas for a pair of home games against the Cincinnati Bengals, followed by the Houston Texans. The preseason finale is traditionally on the Thursday before the final weekend, which would likely be on Aug. 29.

The regular-season schedule will likely be announced next week. The Cowboys know their 2013 opponents and the locations. The NFL is expected to reveal the entire order of games in the near future.