Since it started in its current format as the NFL’s main primetime package in 2006, the defining feature of NBC’s Sunday Night Football has been the use of flexible scheduling to ensure the best matchups and showcase the best teams as the season goes along. Well, that’s the theory, anyway; the reality has not always lived up to the initial hype and has at times seemed downright mystifying. Regardless, I’m here to help you figure out what you can and can’t expect to see on Sunday nights on NBC.
A full explanation of all the factors that go into flexible scheduling decisions can be found on my NFL Flexible Scheduling Primer, but here’s the Cliffs Notes version with all the important points you need to know:
- The season can be broken down into three different periods (four if you count the first four weeks where flexible scheduling does not apply at all) for flexible scheduling purposes, each with similar yet different rules governing them: the early flex period, from weeks 5 to 10; the main flex period, from weeks 11 to 16; and week 17. In years where Christmas forces either the Sunday afternoon slate or the Sunday night game to Saturday in Week 16, flex scheduling does not apply that week, and the main flex period begins week 10.
- In all cases, only games scheduled for Sunday may be moved to Sunday night. Thursday and Monday night games, as well as late-season Saturday games, are not affected by Sunday night flexible scheduling (discounting the “flexible scheduling” applied to Saturday of Week 16 in recent years and Week 15 this year – see below).
- During the early and main flex periods, one game is “tentatively” scheduled for Sunday night and listed with the Sunday night start time of 8:20 PM ET. This game will usually remain at that start time and air on NBC, but may be flexed out for another game and moved to 1, 4:05, or 4:25 PM ET on Fox or CBS, no less than 12 days in advance of the game.
- No more than two games can be flexed to Sunday night over the course of the early flex period. If the NFL wishes to flex out a game in the early flex period twelve days in advance, CBS and Fox may elect to protect one game each from being moved to Sunday night. This is generally an emergency valve in situations where the value of the tentative game has plummeted since the schedule was announced, namely in cases of injury to a key star player.
- CBS and Fox may also each protect games in five out of six weeks of the main flex period, but all of those protections must be submitted after week 5, week 4 in years where the main flex period begins week 10 (so it is always six weeks before the start of the main flex period).
- No team may appear more than six times across the league’s three primetime packages on NBC, ESPN, and Fox/NFL Network, and only three teams are allowed to appear that often, with everyone else getting five. In addition, no team may appear more than four times on NBC. All teams’ number of appearances heading into this season may be seen here.
- According to the league’s official page, teams are notified when “they are no longer under consideration or eligible for a move to Sunday night.” However, they rarely make this known to the fans, and the list of each network’s protections has never officially been made public. It used to leak fairly regularly, but has not leaked since 2014.
- In all cases, the NFL is the ultimate arbiter of the schedule and consults with CBS, Fox, and NBC before moving any games to prime time. If the NFL does elect to flex out the Sunday night game, the network whose game is flexed in may receive the former tentative game, regardless of which network would “normally” air it under the “CBS=AFC, Fox=NFC” rules, keeping each network’s total number of games constant. At the same time, the NFL may also move games between 1 PM ET and 4:05/4:25 PM ET. However, this feature focuses primarily if not entirely on Sunday night flexible scheduling.
- In Week 17, the entire schedule is set on only six days notice, ensuring that NBC gets a game with playoff implications, generally a game where the winner is the division champion. More rarely, NBC may also show an intra-division game for a wild card spot, or a game where only one team wins the division with a win but doesn’t win the division with a loss, but such situations are rare and 2018 was the first time it showed such a game. If no game is guaranteed to have maximum playoff implications before Sunday night in this fashion, the league has been known not to schedule a Sunday night game at all. To ensure maximum flexibility, no protections or appearance limits apply to Week 17. The NFL also arranges the rest of the schedule such that no team playing at 4:25 PM ET (there are no 4:05 games Week 17) could have their playoff fate decided by the outcome of the 1 PM ET games, which usually means most if not all of the games with playoff implications outside Sunday night are played at 4:25 PM ET.
Here are the current tentatively-scheduled games and my predictions:
Week 11 (November 22):
- Selected game: Kansas City @ Las Vegas.
Week 12 (November 29):
- Selected game: Chicago @ Green Bay.
Week 13 (December 6):
- Selected game: Denver @ Kansas City.
Week 14 (December 13):
- Selected game: Pittsburgh @ Buffalo.
Week 15 (December 20):
- Tentative game: San Francisco @ Dallas
- Prospects: 5-6 v. 3-8, but with the NFC East tire fire the Cowboys are still within striking distance of the division race, and it might be a sign of the apocalypse if they were ever flexed out of Sunday night.
- Likely protections: Chiefs-Saints (CBS) and Seahawks-Football Team, Eagles-Cardinals, or nothing (FOX).
- Other possible games: Fox’s unprotected game(s), plus Browns-Giants, are probably the best options just because of the NFC East tire fire, with Patriots-Dolphins and Bears-Vikings being worthy of mention as games involving teams at 5-6 or better.
- Analysis: One of my commenters, while acknowledging that this game will almost certainly keep its spot, has begged the league to flex it out – for Chiefs-Saints, ignoring that in the league’s eyes the late afternoon game is every bit as important as the primetime games, and draws larger audiences as well. In 2010 the league kept a tentative involving a 3-8 Cowboy team playing a 7-4 Eagle team; two years later they kept a game pitting a 5-5 Cowboy team a game out of the wild card against a 3-7 Eagle team when the Giants held a two-game division lead. Given that history there’s no way they flex out a three-win Cowboy team in an NFC East so lousy that they’re still within a game of the division lead, especially since with the expanded playoffs the Niners are in a similar position as the 2012 Cowboys (and the team losing the NFC East tiebreaker is technically only a game behind them!). That’s especially the case since, once you look past that Chiefs-Saints game, the most viable alternatives also involve the NFC East tire fire; in that case the tentative game bias points to keeping the NFC East game you have, certainly when it involves the division’s most attractive team. Patriots-Dolphins and Bears-Vikings would become more interesting if the 5-6 teams in those games won while the Niners and Cowboys lost and other NFC East teams won to put the Cowboys further out of the NFC East race, but given that past history a game involving a 6-6 team isn’t going to overcome the Cowboys factor.
- Final prediction: San Francisco 49ers @ Dallas Cowboys (no change).
Week 16 (December 27):
- Tentative game: Tennessee @ Green Bay
- Prospects: 8-3 v. 8-3. Two teams with unexpectedly identical records and leading their respective divisions in the thick of the playoff hunt but with very different stakes: the Titans likely can’t do better than the 3 seed and are fighting the Colts for the division, while the Packers could have the division clinched by the time of the game but is very much in the thick of the fight for the first-round bye.
- Likely protections: Colts-Steelers, Rams-Seahawks, or nothing (CBS) and Eagles-Cowboys (FOX).
- Other possible games: All the games involving teams with four wins or better I pointed out in previous weeks moved to Saturday. CBS’ unprotected games (as this is the most likely week for them to leave unprotected) are probably the best alternatives if for whatever reason the league feels the need to flex it out, with Giants-Ravens as a dark horse given the situation in the NFC East.
- Tentative game: None (NBC will show game with guaranteed playoff implications).
- Possible games: Falcons-Bucs, Bidens-Eagles, Cowboys-Giants, Vikings-Lions, Steelers-Browns, Packers-Bears, Saints-Panthers, Dolphins-Bills, Seahawks-Niners, Cardinals-Rams.
Still think the NFL needs to consider doing a makeup to NBC by perhaps moving SF-ARI from 4:30 PM Eastern Time Saturday 12/26 (where it is currently scheduled to air on Prime Video and Twitch) to an 8:20 PM Eastern Time start on Christmas Night (Friday 12/25) as an additional game for NBC due to everything that happened with BAL-PIT and NBC screwed by having to air it in late afternoon on a Wednesday due to a prior contractual commitment to air the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Rockefeller Plaza that could not be pushed back a night. I saw one person even post on Twitter (https://twitter.com/danderson7500/status/1334257962743959555) BAL-PIT didn’t air at all in the Quad Cities, likely due to contractual commitments to air syndicated programming and/or not wanting to mess up their local news, even for one day, I’m sure there were other NBC affiliates who did the same thing. The NFL could make it up to NBC by moving SF-ARI to Christmas Night to give NBC as close to the setup of the original Thanksgiving night slot as realistically possible this season while moving another game (most likely Browns-Jets) to the 4:30 PM Saturday slot for Amazon Prime and Twitch (and keeping TEN-GB on SNF as that is almost certain to NOT be flexed at this point).
As for Week 17, would the NFL consider flexing TWO games to SNF if both were relevant to a division title, airing it as a split with one game on NBC and the other on both NBCSN and COZI TV (NBC’s DT-2 channel)? Especially if the NFC East has all four teams with a chance to win it the final week, that is something I could see done.
Need to clarify:
FOX does have MIN-NO scheduled for Christmas Day, but that is a 4:30 PM ET kickoff on FOX and NFLN. Moving SF-ARI to an 8:20 PM ET kickoff Christmas Night on NBC would have that game AFTER the game on FOX/NFLN.
(Repost from Week 11 Watch)
Hi all,
My final Week 14 preferences for Sunday Night Football are:
#1 – Steelers(10-0) @ Bills(8-3) <—I still like a Dec. 13th SNF game in Buffalo (brrrrr….)…lock in my book and this is the tentative….only change for Week 14 was moving my Packers game so this game stayed put as it should
#2 – Colts(7-4) @ Raiders(6-5) <—intriguing, very important matchup
#3 – Chiefs(10-1) @ Dolphins(7-4) <—got a little skewed this past weekend, but potential playoff matchup. Amazing to say that.
My current Week 15 preference for Sunday Night Football is:
#1 – Chiefs(10-1) @ Saints(9-2) <—clear cut #1, that hopefully unseats the tentative below
49ers(5-6) @ Cowboys(3-8) <—Cowboys means no moving this, plus some good(?)
games are going to move to Saturday, lessening the chances even more of a flex. Ugh!!!…This game gets worse and 2020 has been so bad that this might be the season that Morgan's "apocalypse" happens and the Cowboys get flexed out. Please, please flex out this disaster for Week 15. There's only 1 good game to go if it isn't protected and I mention it above and it probably is protected. 🙁
My current Week 16 preferences for Sunday Night Football are:
#1 – Titans(8-3) @ Packers(8-3) <—looking good, plus some good(?) games are going to
move to Saturday, lessening the chances even more of a flex
#2 – Rams(7-4) @ Seahawks(8-3) <—huge game in the NFC West
#3 – Colts(7-4) @ Steelers(10-0) <—important game, but it's a skosh lopsided though I can see Indy winning
No tentative game for Week 17 & scheduled games are:
Dolphins(7-4) @ Bills(8-3)
Jets(0-11) @ Patriots(5-6)
Ravens(6-4) @ Bengals(2-8-1)
Steelers(10-0) @ Browns(8-3)
Jaguars(1-10) @ Colts(7-4)
Titans(8-3) @ Texans(4-7)
Chargers(3-8) @ Chiefs(10-1)
Raiders(6-5) @ Broncos(4-7)
Cowboys(3-8) @ Giants(4-7)
Redski…(4-7) @ Eagles(3-6-1)
Packers(8-3) @ Bears(5-6)
Vikings(5-6) @ Lions(4-7)
Saints(9-2) @ Panthers(4-8)
Falcons(4-7) @ Buccaneers(7-5)
Cardinals(6-5) @ Rams(7-4)
Seahawks(8-3) @ 49ers(5-6)
Go Pack Go this week in Week 13 on Sunday at Lambeau vs the Eagles. 🙂
(Repost from Week 11 Watch)
Week 15 and Week 16 each have 5 games that can be moved to Saturday from Sunday. The NFL can choose to move a minimum of 2 games and up to 3 games each of these weeks.
Here’s how things were decided for these Week 16 Saturday games.
Buccaneers(7-4) @ Lions(4-6) <—1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST on NFL Network
49ers(4-6) @ Cardinals(6-4) <—4:30 p.m. EST/1:30 p.m. PST on Amazon Prime Video and Twitch…..I had no idea this was even being considered, but it's also on the NFL app and Yahoo Sports App. I will be able to watch it on the Yahoo Sports App on my phone
Dolphins(6-4) @ Raiders(6-4) <—8:15 p.m. EST/5:15 p.m. PST on NFL Network
I just hope that we can all stay healthy, get a vaccine ASAP(looking more promising as of 11/09/20 and even more promising as of 11/16/20 and 11/23/20 and 11/30/20) and get back to normal ASAP, and get the 2020 NFL season completed as scheduled.
Jeff
Still going to bat for Tampa Bay (Tom Brady) at Atlanta for Week 15 SNF instead of Cowboy Crap. I’m sick of them always getting a free pass no matter what even though they’re 3-8 and Dak Prescott is out for the year. If the NFL refuses to change the game, fans should BOYCOTT the game. Speak with your remote. If fans continue to watch Cowboy Crap, the NFL will continue to shove Cowboy Crap down our throats instead of giving us real games on SNF.
Schmolik:
Cowboys are as of now still in the running for the NFC Tire Fire. The likely STILL will have a shot regardless of the outcome of their game with the Ravens on Tuesday and their fan base will watch no matter what. 49ers are still in contention for a Wild Card (which is why for a makeup game for NBC I would give them SF-ARI on Christmas Night and give Amazon/Twitch a different game to replace it there).
I don’t care about Cowboys fans. There are 31 other teams in the NFL (30 if you include the 49ers since they are the other team playing). It’s a freaking double standard. If any other team in the NFL was 3-8 they’d be flexed out of SNF. When the Colts had Peyton Manning they got flexed out after he got injured. The Cowboys could be winless and stay on SNF and I’m sick of it.
NFL NEEDS to Flex NO/KC. NBC is making a HUGE mistake if DAL/SF stays as SNF, They have to get that game from CBS with and by ANY means necessary
No way CBS will give up Saints/Chiefs. They pay a ton of money too, they aren’t just going to let NBC poach every top game (which makes it kind of meaningless for that guy who copies and pastes his “preferences” every week… we can all look at the records and see what the top games are. There’s a reason Morgan talks about protected games. CBS will NEVER give that up). And i agree about the double-standard for Dallas. This isn’t 1978. They’re not “America’s Team” anymore (and neither are the Pats). Too much Dallas on TV lately as it is. How much Andy Dalton/Fat McCarthy do we have to stomach? But onto my pressing concern….
I always check 506 sports to see the TV coverage maps to see what games I’ll get in my area (Northern California)…. tonight I stumped upon the Skins/Steelers Monday “day” football game and see most of the country WILL NOT get it!? says “Exclusive to Sunday Ticket” … i assume that’s DirecTV subscribers only!? what a joke. (I have Dish). They’re going to really have an undefeated team play a Monday game and most of the nation won’t get to see it!?
I need one of you geeks (hello, Walt) to chime in here and tell me what I’m missing? Is there a pigeon release party going on FOX so that the rest of us can’t watch??
https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2020&wk=13
there’s the link by the way
What a joke:
The NFL’s COVID-19 related schedule changes have produced some interesting outcomes this year, from Wednesday Afternoon Football on NBC (thanks to the Christmas In Rockefeller Center special) to Titans-Bills on a Tuesday night on CBS to a planned mid-season Monday Night Football doubleheader on ESPN (which actually didn’t happen, thanks to Broncos-Patriots getting delayed further to the following Sunday). But the changes around Monday’s Washington Football Team-Pittsburgh Steelers game are particularly interesting.
That game was initially planned as one of several games in an early Sunday window on Fox, but it was moved to 5 p.m. Eastern Monday after Ravens-Steelers got bumped to Wednesday. (Ravens-Cowboys got bumped to Tuesday, but that was originally a national Thursday night game, and it will still be a national broadcast on Fox/NFL Network/Amazon.) But, as per JP Kirby of 506 Sports, as of Thursday night, it’s only set to air on 71 selected Fox affiliates. Viewers elsewhere will need NFL Sunday Ticket to watch it:
Perosnaly, i don’t understand why Steelers-Redskins is “Exclusive to Sunday Ticket”?
Guys lets be real here, Chiefs Saints is staying on CBS, other than Niners Cowboys, the options really aren’t that intriguing to knock off the tentative game… the only other realistic option I see is Seahawks vs Washington, IF the football team pulls off the upset against the Steelers
MAYBE SEA-WAS gets flexed to SNF IF WAS beats PIT AND BOTH SF and DAL lose their respective games. IF SF wins their game, they are still in the hunt for a wild card and that would be enough for NBC to keep SF-DAL.
As already noted, I would also give NBC SF-ARI (currently scheduled for Sat. 12/26 on Amazon and Twitch) on Christmas Night (after MIN-NO on FOX/NFLN) to make up for the Thanksgiving fiasco and tell Amazon/Twitch that they are getting another game because the NFL has to make up to NBC for NBC being forced to air PIT-BAL in the afternoon and now having to do a lot of make-goods on ads due to that and some NBC stations not airing BAL-PIT due to contractual commitments to air regular weekday programming..
As for the PIT-WAS situation on Monday, I suspect what happened was FOX wanted to keep that game and the only way that game was going full national would have been to do a doubleheader on ESPN with ABC stations getting one of the two games, the likely scenario if that had happened being:
WAS-PIT at 7:40 PM ET ESPN and ABC stations in the eastern half of the country (except Buffalo).
BUF-SF at 11:10 PM ET on ESPN and ABC stations in the western half of the country (plus Buffalo).
The likely problems would have been people in Buffalo screaming loudly about their game pushed back to an 11:00 PM ET kickoff, forcing them to stay up until 2:30 AM to see the finish of it while the Bills would have objected because they would not get back home until around Noon local time on Tuesday and their scheduled messed up for the week leading up to their meeting with the Steelers in Week 14. Also, ABC stations in Buffalo and the surrounding areas would be having to air Jimmy Kimmel Live at most likely 9:00 PM local time with local news leading up to the Bills-49ers game.
Otherwise, it’s also possible many FOX affiliates outside the northeast (where the game will pretty much be seen on FOX) told FOX they could not air the game due to contractual commitments to air syndicated programming or did not want to pre-empt local news for that game. Interestingly, some parts of the midwest are airing that game on FOX.
Walt:
I believe that DirecTV was entitled to have WSH/PIT nationally, in order get to a certain number of games for Sunday Ticket. I don’t think it was because many FOX affiliates outside the northeast (where the game will pretty much be seen on FOX) told FOX they could not air the game due to contractual commitments to air syndicated programming, otherwise i would have given the game to FS1.
Hey there CaliCannon. Thanks for that link to the story/maps you were talking about. Very surprising to me that the Redski…/Steelers game isn’t national. All of the other moves earlier which led to only 1 game on became a nationally televised game. Interesting.
My preferences are indeed sort of meaningless, as I am just stating what I’d prefer to see. I have been following Morgan’s site here since flex scheduling started in 2006 and I thank Morgan for giving us a forum. I know of no other site that does so. We used to “know” what the protections were for CBS and FOX, but for some reason the rumors no longer get out there and honestly, we have absolutely idea why the NFL keeps this secret anyway. Oh well.
Thank you once again for pointing out the information that you did, as I assumed that the Monday 2 p.m. Pacific game would be available on my Yahoo sports app. I looked a few minutes ago and nope, it’s not.
I am in Southern California and just looked at the games that are on here tomorrow and they are kinda garbage. Raiders/Jets exclusively at 10 a.m. and at 1 p.m. we get Patriots/Chargers and Rams/Cardinals. At least that last game is pretty good.
Because of the pandemic, I can’t go to the local Applebee’s that I usually do and be able to see nearly all of the morning games. They can put on up to 7 games and that covers all but the worst matchup or 2 each Sunday morning. I will be happy when the pandemic is over for a myriad of reasons.
Peace and Go Pack Go!!!! 🙂
Up here in Northern California our local FOX channel is blacked out by Dish. grrrr
thank god for Scott Hanson and Red Zone
enjoy the games everyone!
Jeff:
As said, I think many FOX affiliates outside of the northeast and some parts of the midwest have contractual commitments to air syndicated programming when the game would have been on or in some cases did not want to pre-empt local news for football.
What they should have done was instead done a doubleheader on ESPN (with one of the two games on ABC as noted above) and if necessary compensated DirecTV for being a game short of their requirement EVEN IF it meant people in Buffalo had to stay up past 2:00 AM ET to watch the Bills.
That sucks CaliCannon. 🙁
Yeah Walt. Here’s what we get on FOX, while the game is on tomorrow:
2pm to 2:30pm – 25 Words or Less with Meredith Vieira
2:30pm to 3pm – 25 Words or Less with Meredith Vieira
3pm to 4pm – The Dr. Oz Show
4pm to 5pm – TMZ Live
5pm to 6pm – Fox News at 5
4 hours of programming that I would never watch if I was home from work. LOL
Go Pack Go!!!!
While I still don’t think the NFL flexes out 49ers-Cowboys, the Giants win in Seattle (!) makes the Browns-Giants game an interesting flex option. CBS probably wouldn’t be pleased, as I think that game is their top early game (DH game is Chiefs-Saints, of course). If they do flex, CBS would probably make Patriots-Dolphins their top early game.
Hey I’ll take anything other than Cowboy Crap so I’ll join the Browns/Giants campaign!
Have not seen any articles on it but heard Al Michaels say near the end of the 12/6 SNF broadcast that Mike Tirico will be “sliding in” for the PIT vs BUF game.
As much as I like Al Michaels, Mike Tirico will be a great heir apparent when Al decides to call it a career. Just by listening to Mike, not only he is easy to understand but you can sense the passion in his calls.
Good call on Giants/Browns. I think that gets the nod. New York market makes up for Dallas ratings?
meanwhile, any bootleg streams to watch skins/steelers today for those of us out West!?
Given the Football Team also won today (Monday) and are now tied for the NFC East at 5-7 (Giants own the tiebreak), Browns-Giants is guaranteed to have NFC East implications and the Browns still have a shot in the AFC North and now look like they will be the 5 seed at worst in round 1. I would do the unthinkable and flex out SF-DAL (which likely would become CBS’s early game since the network losing the game flexed in would get the flexed-out game, which CBS would be more than happy to take.
Oh, and another interesting thing: If the Giants and Football Team both win out and finish 9-7, Giants win the division and the Football Team actually almost would be certain to be a wild card and possibly a sixth seed in the NFC. I doubt anyone was even remotely thinking of THAT possibility two weeks ago.
Hi all,
My final Week 15 preferences for Sunday Night Football are:
#1 – Chiefs(10-1) @ Saints(9-2) <—clear cut #1, that hopefully unseats the tentative below, but is likely protected…..okay I am 100% sure it's protected….Tebow got a protected game moved before though, so there's some precedent.
#2 – Patriots(6-6) @ Dolphins(8-4) <—huge game in the AFC East and could be some fun
49ers(5-7) @ Cowboys(3-8) <—Cowboys means no moving this, plus some good(?)
games are going to move to Saturday, lessening the chances even more of a flex. Ugh!!!…This game gets worse and 2020 has been so bad that this might be the season that Morgan's "apocalypse" happens and the Cowboys get flexed out. Please, please flex out this disaster for Week 15. There's now good games to go to.
Browns(9-3) @ Giants(5-7) would be interesting, but I doubt the league will take a chance on this game. The league not moving last night's game gives me pause that they won't move the tentative.
My current Week 16 preferences for Sunday Night Football are:
#1 – Titans(8-4) @ Packers(9-3) <—looking good to stay, as it clearly good and the tentative
#2 – Rams(8-4) @ Seahawks(8-4) <—huge, huge, huge game in the NFC West. Did I say huge?
#3 – Colts(8-4) @ Steelers(11-1) <—very important game on many counts and I can see Indy winning
My current Week 17 preferences for Sunday Night Football are (for the 1st time I list preferences for this week):
#1 – Dolphins(8-4) @ Bills(9-3) <—could be for the AFC East, but the other ramifications of this game could very much hurt its chances
Jets(0-12) @ Patriots(6-6) <—hell no
Ravens(6-5) @ Bengals(2-9-1) <—hell no #2
#2 – Steelers(11-1) @ Browns(9-3) <—Week 13 made this game potentially more important now
Jaguars(1-11) @ Colts(8-4) <—no way San Jose
Titans(8-4) @ Texans(4-8) <—AFC South and horrible game
Chargers(3-9) @ Chiefs(11-1) <—disaster
Raiders(7-5) @ Broncos(4-8) <—nada
Cowboys(3-8) @ Giants(5-7) <—only if it turns into a "win and in"
Redski…(5-7) @ Eagles(3-8-1) <—only if it turns into a "win and in" Part Deux
Packers(9-3) @ Bears(5-7) <—what was once promising turned into the Bears
Vikings(6-6) @ Lions(5-7) <—could become win and in for 7 seed, so maybe
Saints(10-2) @ Panthers(4-8) <—nope
Falcons(4-8) @ Buccaneers(7-5) <—hell nope
Cardinals(6-6) @ Rams(8-4) <—time will tell, but I think my brother (Kyler Murray – okay we share the last name, but I am not his dad) is more hurt than we know and the Cards are fading
Seahawks(8-4) @ 49ers(5-7) <—tonight's 49ers loss ended the chances for this, as of now. LOL
Go Pack Go this week in Week 14 on Sunday at Ford Field vs the Lions. 🙂
Thoughts?
Jeff:
Would not be surprised if we see CLE-NYG replacing SF-DAL on SNF (with SF-DAL becoming CBS’s main early game) mainly because as said, that game is now guaranteed to have NFC East implications regardless of what happens next week (and as noted, in a bizarre turn of events, if NYG and WSH both win out and finish 9-7, we actually would likely have TWO NFC East teams playing in the postseason when that didn’t even look REMOTELY possible two weeks ago).
Also, I could see NBC being granted a Christmas night makeup game on NBC because of the Thanksgiving fiasco. Still could see SF-ARI moved from Sat. 12/26 to Friday 12/25 at 8:20 (would not affect the Xmas day game, MIN-NO on FOX/NFLN as that is at 4:30) though it would put such a game opposite the DAL-LAL NBA game on ABC and ESPN. If that happened, Amazon Prime and Twitch would likely be given a makeup game that could be CLE-NYJ.
Walt, I don’t think the NFL will actually move a game to make it a day earlier than originally planned.
As for the Cowboys I do agree that game should be flexed out! CBS will most certainly protect the KC-NO game but Dolphins-Pats or Giants-Browns are both way better options than this cowboys nonsense
Patriots at Dolphins is out. Patriots will have maxed out Prime Time Games & that doesn’t include their game at KC earlier this season. Cleveland at Giants is the only possible change in week 15.
Spencer:
Under normal circumstances, this would not be considered, but NBC IMO is owed a makeup because of things that were completely outside of NBC’s control with the BAL-PIT game that was forced to be a late afternoon game on a Wednesday because of the tree lighting in Rockefeller Plaza. Christmas Night happens to be a Friday and is the only reason I’d even consider this. It’s a special situation where Christmas Night is as close to the situation NBC would have had Thanksgiving night if BAL-PIT had been played as scheduled. That’s why I move SF-ARI to Christmas Night and put another game in the 4:30 Saturday slot on Amazon Prime and Twitch, citing extrarodinary cirumstances and owing NBC a game to make up for Thanksgiving (even if NBC actually did televise the game, it was on a weekday and NBC has to likely do a ton of advertiser make goods because of that which could be done on this added game).
I see nothing but crickets at nflcommunications.com, so I am going to “ass u me” that there are no changes to the Week 15 schedule. Unless they are waiting for tonight’s game to finish and are deferring any changes until tomorrow instead of the usual day of decisions to be made; which was today.
Three cheers to suck ass football on Sunday Night Football. Just as we expected way back in 2006 when they came up with this plan. NOT!!!
Jeff, come on man who dosen’t like a good practice squad bowl on SNF!🤣🤣.
Walt, if you want to talk about make ups, the NFL owes it to us fans to flex in a good game since they left us with this cowboys rubbish.
This has been a terrible year for Sunday Night Football. I know times were tough this season but the fact that they were unwilling (or unable) to flex out some bad matchups is upsetting.
The apocalypse is upon us because they actually flexed out the Cowboys!!!
I was going to say exactly what Judd said; I think if either the Giants lost on Sunday or if the Cowboys won last night they would not have made this move. But because the Giants won and the Cowboys did not look good last night they did. They also moved Jets-Rams to FOX making Chiefs-Saints exclusive at 4:25, so except for maybe a few markets that becomes a full national game as well. So really there are two national TV games that day.
Nice call by Walt sending 49ers to CBS:
It’s been a crazy year, and on Wednesday, we got news that might only happen in 2020. The NFL announced Week 15 schedule changes, and they are moving 49ers vs. Cowboys out of Sunday Night Football. Using its flex option, the league has decided Browns vs. Giants is the more compelling matchup.
It’s not a shocking development in light of how the four teams are playing, but it’s still a bit of a stunner. As recently as a year ago, if you told me 49ers-Cowboys would be a blah matchup worth demoting, I would have called you crazy. And yet, here we are. Giants-Browns features two teams in the thick of the playoff race. The 5-7 Giants are leading a bad NFC East division, while the 9-3 Browns are firmly atop the Wild Card race and in shouting distance of the division-leading Steelers.
The NFL has rescheduled 49ers-Cowboys for 1 p.m. ET on CBS. Additionally, Jets-Rams has been scheduled for 4:05 pm ET on FOX.
Well I Can Not Believe That 49ers cowboys got flexed out of prime time and this is the first time that the Dallas Cowboys Got Flexed Out For The First Time ever like last year when the Philadelphia Eagles got flexed out for the first time and the Minnesota Vikings also got flexed out for the first time ever But I’m Not A Fan of either the Browns or Giants But The NFL Was right to flex The Cowboys out. Thank Goodness.
This week’s NFL TV maps courtesy of 506 sports
https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2020&wk=14
I guess H**l has frozen over! Cowboys flexed out! It would also be great if we could flex games out of Monday Night too! There have been some pretty lame match-ups there too recently
Flexed OUT!!!!
Wow, 2020 still proving itself as crazy!!!! But this flex is a good crazy!!!
Something else unusual about this week:
We effectively have a reverse doubleheader on FOX since MIN-TB is the main game (Buck/Aikman). FOX actually has more games in the LATE than early slot this week.
Walt
If CFB had been canceled entirely, this week would have been good for the following.
Kansas City @ Miami would have been on CBS at 3:30, while Fox would have aired a doubleheader, with New Orleans @ Philadelphia at 4:00 followed by Washington vs San Francisco (in Arizona) at 8:00.
Hey there CaliCannon. Thanks once again for the link for the game map. Here, in the Los Angeles market, we do get Kansas City/Miami in the morning as the CBS single game and that is cool.
We get Arizona/NY Giants for the FOX early game and it has a lot of playoff implications, but so does Minnesota/Tampa Bay and I would have preferred that game.
As for the late FOX game…………..grr…………we get Atlanta/LA Chargers…….boooo…….hissss!!!! Being a Packers fan I, of course, prefer Packers/Lions. We get the worst possible matchup of the 4 available. 🙁
This is why I miss my local Applebee’s being open and being able to watch most of the out of market games there.
Times will get better and soon!!!
Jeff
Enjoy dolphins and chiefs that should be a fun one. here in northern California we get stuck with the raiders game even though hardly anybody cares about them anymore up here 🤦♂️🤬🤦♂️
Ugh, that sucks CaliCannon. 🙁