Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there was a bit of a TV F’-up on Sunday, when the Cowboys/Giants game went deep into overtime, and some producer in Fox HQ had to decide between the eternally-hyped “America’s Team” bullshit that defines Fox’s relationship with the Cowboys’ front office, and the hyped-game-of-the-week Superbowl rematch bullshit of the Chiefs/Eagles game. Basically, it came down to whether Fox would be gargling the balls of Jerry Jones or Patrick Mahomes at 1:25 on Sunday afternoon. It is rare that Fox is unable to manage both simultaneously, as they are quite used to it, but Sunday had a rare scheduling quirk…
It’s typical when a 10:00am game on the network with the doubleheader goes into overtime, that you’ll get “Bonus Coverage” of the overtime broadcast while you’re waiting for the 1:25 kickoff of whatever afternoon game your local station is going to air. Most of the time, a team has won in overtime before 1:25. But, when that’s not the case by kickoff of the afternoon games, Sunday Ticket and the stations in the local markets of teams that are playing will switch away from the bonus coverage, so the home-team fans and the out-of-market premium subscribers can see the whole afternoon game. Keep that in mind for a minute.
The Dallas Cowboys went to New York to take on the Giants, and played three quarters of very mechanical football. Going into the 4th, the score was 17-16, Dallas. But in the last 15 minutes of game time, the teams combined to score 41 points, the lead changed five times, both QBs threw touchdowns in the final minute of play, and in the closing seconds of regulation Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey booted a field goal from 64 yards away to tie the game 37-37.
The overtime period looked more like the first quarter, with New York electing to kick the ball to start (this is unusual, and shows great confidence in your defense), and the teams mostly punting the ball back to each other as the clock wound down. Then, just as it looked like the game might end in a tie, Russell Wilson made a crucial error, and threw the ball deep into coverage and into a place where his receiver wasn’t (there was definitely some miscommunication here on the route, but it was a poor choice to throw it deep at all). Donovan Wilson picked it off. A few plays later, as time was running out again, Brandon Aubrey puts it through from 46 yards out. Aubrey hasn’t missed a field goal yet this year and hasn’t even attempted one under 40 yards.
Next week, 1-1 Dallas goes to 0-2 Chicago for an afternoon game that will be shown on more Fox stations than should be necessary for two pretty bad teams. The 0-2 Giants host Mahomes and the 0-2 Chiefs for the Sunday Night game that someone has to win.
Now, what of the scheduling quirk? It has to do with Sunday Ticket. ST is for out-of-market games only. Any game that is on the air on your local TV station is blacked out on Sunday Ticket, including all “national” games (this is so you can see ads from your local truck dealers, personal injury attorneys, and roofing specialists). Because the Chiefs/Eagles game was the only 1:25 game on Fox this week, it was considered a national broadcast, so the folks who run Sunday Ticket couldn’t even put it on the schedule at all.
But, when the Chiefs kicked off at 1:25 every Fox local station except those in Philly and Kansas City was still showing Dallas/NY and stayed on that game until overtime was over. Nobody in the US was able to see the first 11 minutes of the Chiefs/Eagles game live, unless they were in the home teams’ markets or watching a pirate stream. Considering how much hype they put into promoting this game, Fox/YouTube/NFL should have found a way to put the opening minutes of the game on Sunday Ticket, or they should have cut the national over-the-air broadcast over to the afternoon game (the morning game was on Sunday Ticket, so it would have been available in Dallas, NY, and to ST subscribers).
And what of the Chiefs/Eagles game? Well, the Eagles won it 20-17, thanks to a late Travis Kelce bobbled-catch that turned into an interception. That led to a touchdown that put the Eagles up by 10, and the Chiefs never really recovered from there. This game ultimately was won by a very formidable Eagles defense. The offense in Philly is decent enough, but very methodical and it doesn’t look like it’s going to put up a whole lot of points most weeks. The defense though is a force to reckon with, and they completely shut off the Chiefs running game while also holding Mahomes to only 187 yards in the air. That was enough to win this week.
The 2-0 Eagles go back home and host the 2-0 LA Rams in what should be a good game. The 0-2 Chiefs go to New Jersey to take on the 0-2 Giants.
The Dolphins were at least watchable this week, but they still lost to the New England Patriots 33-27. Tua Tagovailoa set his season high with 315 passing yards (with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception). His previous season high was 114 passing yards (just 5 yards more than he got by throwing to Tyreek Hill this week). Neither defense looked very good out there, and the New England secondary was completely ineffective, but the Patriots’ Defense made the plays when it really mattered, and they sneak away with a win.
Next week the 0-2 Dolphins go to Buffalo to take on the 2-0 Bills in the Thursday Night game. Thursday night games are traditionally stinkers, so I’m putting the chances of Miami reverting back to unwatchable at better than 50/50.
And that brings us to tonight’s games…
Yes, games. There are two, including a west coast game that kicks off at 7:00pm Pacific.
First, at 4:00pm we have the 1-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers going to Houston to take on the 0-1 Texans on the Matrix Turf field of NRG stadium. Houston tried to use natural grass in its indoor stadium. The field itself was on mobile trays that allowed the grounds crew to move the entire field into the parking lot when it was not in use. It was a constant source of problems, especially with the seams between trays, and many players complained about it. They replaced this system with artificial turf in 2015, but their first choice: UBU Sports Speed S5-M wasn’t much better than the grass it replaced. (In fact, this surface isn’t in use in the NFL anymore at all. The last stadium to use S5-M was the Giants/Jets, and they tore it out in 2023). The Texans have played on Matrix with Helix turf since 2017.
I’m not expecting this to be a great game, but there should be some aspects of it that are fun to watch. The Bucs used a first round pick to draft rookie WR Emeka Egbuka, who made his presence known immediately. Baker Mayfield now has more than just Mike Evans to throw to, as he looks to continue his streak of touchdown passes. The question will remain whether Tampa Bay’s offensive line will be able to contain the Texans long enough to give Mayfield the breathing room he needs.
On the other side of the ball, the Texans offense started the year looking downright awful, and perhaps this week C.J. Stroud can find some daylight in a weak Tampa secondary. If he can come out slinging and somewhat reliably get the ball 15-20 yards downfield, there’s a lot of potential for this to be a shootout. But, the Houston O-Line is a bit battered and honestly is a little questionable even when healthy, so it may come down to the tackles’ ability to buy Stroud just enough time.
The Texans are favored by 2.5, with a 42.5 over/under. The 1-0 Smart Money likes the Bucs +2.5 here, but ultimately takes no action on this game. If a book offers +3 before kickoff, the Smart Money will jump on it, though.
Then, at 7:00pm Pacific (10:00pm for those folks on the other coast), the Chargers will take on the Raiders on the natural grass surface of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. This is the only stadium in the NFL that is equipped to use both natural and artificial turf, and they are regularly swapped. The Raiders play on Tifway 419 Bermudagrass, which is on 9,500 tons of four foot deep trays that roll out into the parking lot between games. However, the UNLV Rebels play on a Hellas Softtop removable artificial turf system that can be rolled up and removed or re-installed in just a few hours. The groundskeepers’ union is very busy in Vegas.
This game has the potential to be interesting. Even beyond it being a divisional rivalry between teams that haven’t been very competitive in the division for years, there’s a story around two experienced coaches both with new teams this year (Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll). The Raiders’ Geno Smith likes to throw into the secondary (he’s kind of the anti-Mahomes in this way), while the Chargers secondary is… not very good. Throw in the Raiders regular use of two tight ends and crossing routes, and both teams trying out their new rookie running backs (and using them for play-action misdirection), and you have a recipe for both big runs and highlight-worthy catches over the middle of the field. It’s likely to be an offense-heavy game, in front of a crowd that’s as likely to be LA fans who drove in for the night as it is to be Raiders fans. It’ll be interesting to see if the Raiders need to move to a silent count because their home crowd is too loud.
The Chargers are favored by 3.5, with an over/under of 46.5. The Smart Money takes the over.
And finally, a word or two on kickers, as followup to last week. As expected, the 49ers replaced their kicker on Tuesday, and the new guy came out and… missed his first extra point attempt. Over the course of the game, he made two field goals and two other extra points, so he’s breathing a little easier this morning, but that first miss was not a good look for a team whose kicking pains go back two years. Atlanta traded their active kicker for Parker Romo, a former XFL guy that the Patriots cut at the roster deadline in August, who proceeded to go 5/5 on field goals, plus an extra point. Younghoe Koo is technically on the injury list and hasn’t been fired yet, but If Romo puts in another performance like this, the job is his.
Meanwhile, Dallas’s kicker (Brandon Aubrey) made all four extra point attempts, and all four field goals (from 44, 46, 51 and 64) including two walk-off kicks. His job is probably the safest in the NFL this week.