I know what you’re thinking, it’s Thursday so tonight we are going to get to watch the first game of National Football League Week Six action.
Sorry, if I have to be the first to inform you, but there is no Thursday night game this week. The contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills has been moved to Monday night. It is one of nearly a dozen schedule changes the league has been forced to make in order to play a season in the midst of a pandemic.
The NFL’s attempt to play this season while avoiding setbacks due to the Coronavirus is a little like trying to run through rain without getting wet.
While the Chiefs had a coach get a positive test, neither Kansas City nor Buffalo have had any of their games rescheduled due to outbreaks in their organizations. But their game tonight had to be moved because the Tennessee Titans had multiple players and staff test positive for the virus and that forced the Buffalo Bills game against Tennessee to be moved. The Bills played the Titans on Tuesday, making it unfair that Buffalo would have had to play another game just two days later.
This would have been the most attractive Thursday night game of the season for CBS to broadcast. They did get some consolation in the opportunity to air an attractive matchup between a pair of undefeated teams on Tuesday night, and will be part of the Monday night double-header this week. In addition to the Chiefs/Bills matchup the Monday Night Football schedule includes the Arizona Cardinals at Dallas Cowboys.
As for Sunday, we get to see Tom Brady in action with his new team against one of his contemporary future Hall of Fame rivals, Aaron Rodgers. Brady lost his first duel against a vaulted quarterback competitor on opening day when the homestanding New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees pinned Brady and his Buccaneers with a loss, 34-23.
This time Brady will challenge a great quarterback in his home stadium … and we suspect the result is going to be vastly different.
The Green Bay Packers are one of four remaining undefeated teams, joined in that category by the Seattle Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans. The Packers, who are coming off their bye week, will look to match the only other team with a perfect record after playing five games, the Seahawks.
An attempt to win a fifth straight game has historically been a common spot for a 4-0 team to have their perfect season halted. Only two teams have survived a full regular season without suffering a loss, the 1972 Miami Dolphins and 2007 New England Patriots, so we can attest with some assurance that even the best teams are going to get tripped up somewhere.
This appears to be the Packers Waterloo on dreams of a perfect season.
The Buccaneers are coming off a loss with extra rest, they were defeated on the road last Thursday night in Chicago. That game was an ideal spot for the Bears motivationally, and one could see from the play on the field last week that the Buccaneers were the better team but simply fell victim to the circumstances unique to that night.
Now, Tampa Bay goes from being on the wrong side of circumstances to the right side of the factor that most often dictates an NFL winner … motivation.
Edges go to the home team tonight while coming off a loss and challenged by an undefeated Packers team.
The chances of Aaron Rodgers and company escaping this spot with a fifth straight win is highly unlikely, and an excellent spot to cash a ticket with the home team.
Qoxhi Picks: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (pk) over Green Bay Packers