Did the NFL have anything to be thankful for in the ratings department? (AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth)

There were three NFL games on Thanksgiving, and a whole lot of people watched the one between two classic NFC East rivals.

The 15.6 overnight rating garnered by the Redskins-Cowboys game was up slightly over last year’s Cowboys-Panthers game, which drew a 15.3 rating for CBS.

The other afternoon game between the Lions and Vikings garnered a 14.4 overnight rating for CBS, up from the 13.7 rating for the 2015 Lions-Eagles game on Fox.

But as we’ve seen all season, TV ratings for the prime-time game suffered, as the contest between the Steelers and the Colts drew a 10.8 rating on NBC, down 26 percent from last year’s Bears-Packers game on Thanksgiving night. With Indianapolis down one marquee player in quarterback Andrew Luck and Pittsburgh controlling things from start to finish in its 28-7 victory, this ratings decline hardly was surprising.

[John Madden says Thursday night NFL just doesn’t work]

As of earlier this month, ratings for the NFL’s Sunday prime-time games on NBC were down almost 19 percent from last year and the ratings for “Monday Night Football” on ESPN were down about 24 percent.