The NFL has the ability to move some games around, and like every year, they are choosing to flex some matchups. The Week 11 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers will now be on “Sunday Night Football,” CBS Sports lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones confirms. The game was originally Nov. 17 at 4:25 p.m. ET while the New York Jets and Indianapolis Colts were set to face off under the lights.
The game between the Jets and Colts, who have both struggled so far this season, has been moved to 1 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcasted on CBS (stream on Paramount+)
That means the highly anticipated AFC battle between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills will now be a standalone national game at 4:25 p.m. ET that will be broadcasted on CBS (stream on Paramount+). As two of the best teams in the conference, with the Chiefs currently 7-0 and the Bills 7-2, this has the potential to be an AFC Championship preview.
As for the new “Sunday Night Football” matchup, the Bengals are currently 4-5 and coming off a win in Week 9 that saw quarterback Joe Burrow throw five touchdown passes. They defeated the Las Vegas Raiders, 41-24, but will have a challenge when they face the Baltimore Ravens this Thursday night. The Chargers also got a win in Week 9, defeating the Cleveland Browns, 27-10, while on the road. The victory improved L.A. to 5-3 and second in the AFC West, behind the undefeated Chiefs.
New York entered the season with a collection of prime-time games, but hasn’t looked like the team Aaron Rodgers and Co. had hoped it’d look like at this point. The Jets are 3-6, and while they did get a “Thursday Night Football” win against the Houston Texans last week, it wasn’t always pretty.
Their Week 11 opponent, the Colts, are also going through some struggles. They just benched former No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson after just 10 career starts in favor of veteran Joe Flacco. Indy didn’t have much success in their first game under new leadership, losing 21-13 to the Minnesota Vikings on “Sunday Night Football.”
The league implemented a “flexible scheduling” procedure for “Sunday Night Football” beginning in 2006. For this season, flexible scheduling includes Monday and Thursday night games as well on a “trial basis.”
The official NFL website states that “the NFL is continuously reviewing its scheduling procedures to ensure exciting and meaningful games are available for viewing by the largest number of fans”
For “Sunday Night Football,” flexing can be done twice between Weeks 5-10 and at the league’s discretion during Weeks 11-17.
