The final week of the NFL regular season is set, with a focus on the AFC North and a strategic scheduling decision to benefit ESPN.
This NFL season is not lacking drama, but it’s running a little short on intrigue. Sometimes, three-quarters of the 32 teams still have at least a flicker of hope heading into the final weekend of the season. This year, 15 teams already have been mathematically eliminated. Still, there’s drama to be had, and the league has scheduled Week 18 accordingly.
The thinking behind the scheduling: It’s unusual to have a single division showcased on Saturday, but that’s the case this year with Cleveland playing at Baltimore in the early game followed by Cincinnati at Pittsburgh. The AFC North is still up for grabs, with Baltimore and Pittsburgh still in the hunt. If the Ravens win, they are division champs. So why schedule that game first? Because the Steelers still will be incentivized to lock up the No. 5 seed. That team gets to open at Houston, as opposed to playing an ostensibly tougher game at Baltimore. At least on paper, seeding matters more in the AFC than the NFC this season. Even if the Ravens begin Saturday with a win, Pittsburgh has something to play for — as does Cincinnati. To keep their back-from-the-dead playoff hopes alive, the Bengals need to win Saturday night then pray that both Denver and Miami lose on Sunday. Cincinnati-Pittsburgh is a huge game, and the NFL wanted it in a national window as opposed to having it broadcast regionally on Sunday. As a side note, both Saturday games are on ESPN, and that network had something of a rough go of it this season. Dallas was on “Monday Night Football” twice, and so was San Francisco, and both of those teams were expected to be a lot better when the schedule was drawn up last spring. The league wanted to do this particular network partner a solid by scheduling a couple of really good games for Saturday. Philadelphia is out of the running for the No. 1 seed by virtue of Minnesota’s win on Sunday, but there’s still something big at stake for the Eagles’ game against the New York Giants on Sunday mornin
NFL Week 18 AFC North ESPN Playoffs Seeding
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