Remember when Monday Night Football always had the biggest games?
Back when Howard Cosell infuriated us with his intellectual snobbery, when Frank Gifford smoothly called the action, and when Dandy Don Meredith turned out the lights in song at game’s end?
Yeah, it’s been a long time.
Soon after NBC kicked off Sunday Night Football in 2006, that game window quickly became THE go-to, prime-time showcase for the best the NFL has to offer, with few annual exceptions. Monday Night Football has been getting the best of the leftovers.
But not this week.
The final Monday night game of the 2022 season might be the league’s most important weeknight showdown in years, if not the most important game of the nearly completed regular season, as the 12-3 Buffalo Bills play at the 11-4 Cincinnati Bengals — at a slightly later kickoff time, 8:30 p.m. EST (TSN 3 and CTV, via ESPN).
Buffalo already has clinched its third consecutive AFC East division title, while the Bengals entered the weekend still fending off the 10-5 Baltimore Ravens, in trying to capture back-to-back AFC North titles.
The central intrigue of this game, though, pertains to the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC — the only one of seven playoff berths in that conference that comes with a first-round bye and home-field advantage through the conference playoffs.
Buffalo held down that position entering Week 17, over 12-3 Kansas City, by virtue of the Bills’ win at the Chiefs in October. With a win, the Bills would enter the season’s final weekend, Jan. 7-8, still perched at No. 1.
But if the Bengals beat the Bills, they’d have a chance to finish No. 1 in the AFC, if they win out and the Chiefs lose once more.
At the same time, the Chiefs are rooting hard for the Bengals to beat the Bills, so they could move into prime position to capture the AFC’s top seed for the fifth consecutive year.
So yeah, a lot is on the line Monday night at Paycor (formerly Paul Brown) Stadium on the Ohio River.
Buffalo, a one-point favourite, has won six in a row, and 10 of 12.
Cincinnati has won seven straight.
“We’ve got to go in there like we’re the underdog,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “We’ve got to go in there hungry and ready to go. As long as we got that … I know the crowd is going to come with it, I know our players are going to come with it, so will our coaches. We’re all excited. (This is) a huge one coming up.”
Although both teams are as injury-free as any NFL team could hope to be, as far as a week’s final injury/game-status report goes, the Bengals offence took a huge hit last week with the loss of standout right tackle La’el Collins. He tore an ACL, and was placed on season-ending injured reserve.
Cincinnati’s remedy by November from a slow start to the season offensively was directly a result of the Bengals’ line far better protecting superstar quarterback Joe Burrow.
Burrow was sacked 29 times in Cincinnati’s 4-4 start (3.6 per game). During their current seven-game win streak, Burrow has been sacked 10 times (1.4 per game).
Collins was one of three new, and better, O-line starters this season, so his loss could be huge. Buffalo ranks 11th in sacks, with 39.
“They’re two good teams,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said. “There’s no magical formula, right? You’ve got to put the time in and prepare, and treat it as such. We have a lot of respect for them as a football team.”
John Kryk writes a weekly newsletter on NFL matters. That’s where you can first see his straight-up picks each week. You can have the newsletter automatically dropped into your email inbox on Wednesdays simply by signing up — for free — at https://torontosun.com/newsletters/
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