Like them or not, Monday night doubleheaders seem to be here to stay.
The business calculation is simple. More total people will watch two games that are broadcast on a Monday than one on Monday and one that otherwise would have landed in the cluster of Sunday games.
Watching the games and enjoying the experience, however, are two different things.
For me, the first choice is one game, and one game only. Monday Night Football is, or should be, special. It should be unique. It started as one game. Good, bad, otherwise. One game, and people watch it or they don’t. More often than not, people watch it — even when the game isn’t a good one.
Having a pair of games that overlap will goose the size of the total audience for the time period when both games are being played. Which is good for business. But is the overall experience of watching two prime-time games at once good for fans?
Also, having two games increases the chances that at least one will be compelling and close. But what if, like last night, neither one is?
In the age of the multiscreen, it’s possible to watch both games at the same time. But possible and preferable are two different things. Is it enjoyable to focus on one game while potentially missing something significant from the other game? Is it feasible to constantly be making the assessment as to whether the eyes, and the audio, should center on one game or the other?
Fortunately, ESPN/ABC have gotten away from doing a split-screen live look-in of the other game. For many, the split-screen version of the other game was ahead of the screen displaying the other game.
Improvements remain possible. Why, for example have the score of the other game on the screen? Anyone who wants to know the score of the other game can either watch the game on a second screen, or they can just watch that game instead.
Despite the six-hour marathon and the ensuing sleep deprivation, it’s better to play the two games consecutively. The fact that 13.5 million, on average, tuned in for the pair of back-to-back Week 2 Monday night games could lead to more of those, especially if/when the numbers for last night’s partially simultaneously twin bill pale in comparison.
Regardless, there will be two more Monday night doubleheaders this season. In 13 days, Bills-Falcons will start at 7:15 p.m. ET, with Bears-Commanders kicking off an hour later. The next Monday, we’ll see another baton-passing pair of games, with Bucs-Lions in the 7 p.m. ET window and Texans-Seahawks beginning at 10 p.m. ET.
For those who don’t like Monday night doubleheaders, there’s a silver lining to the looming NFL-ESPN mega media merger. If/when the transaction receives all appropriate governmental approvals, ESPN will swap its four extra Monday night games back to NFL Network for the seven exclusive NFLN games (which include the early-morning European games).
Of course, this doesn’t preclude the four NFLN games from landing on Monday nights, too. If the powers-that-be like the numbers that come from two Monday night games, a way will be found to continue them.
Here’s the broader point. Audience size and audience enjoyment are, or at least should be, two different things. But only one of those adds directly to the bottom line. And that’s the factor that ultimately matters most.
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn’s feelings about Monday night’s 27-21 loss to the Dolphins started to make themselves known before Glenn entered the press conference area.
Multiple reporters in Miami reported hearing Glenn’s raised voice through the wall of the adjoining locker room as he addressed the sloppy play that sent the team to its fourth loss in as many tries. Glenn was more measured once he got to the podium, but the message about his displeasure with how the Jets played still resonated.
“Very disappointing, very disappointing,” Glenn said. “There is no way you can win any game with 13 penalties and three turnovers. It just can’t happen. What we have to do is go back to work, that’s the only way we can fix it. . . . We have to understand before you can win games, you have to learn how not to lose games.”
Penalties were an issue before Glenn joined the team this offseason, but his vows to curtail them have not amounted to anything other than talk at this point. The Jets have also failed to record a defensive takeaway through four weeks and that makes their giveaways all the more painful because they have given opposing teams easy paths to points each week.
Glenn said later in the press conference that he knew he had a tough task ahead of him with the Jets and did not expect a reversal of fortune overnight, but more signs that it is coming would be welcome in Week 5 against the Cowboys.
Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner said after Monday night’s loss to the Dolphins that he feels like he and the Jets are getting unfair treatment from the officials.
Gardner was flagged for defensive pass interference in the third quarter on a drive the Dolphins scored a touchdown on, and he believes that the 0-4 Jets aren’t getting the calls that better teams get.
“I’m personally frustrated because I feel like me personally, us not winning, I watch football all the time and I just feel like, I don’t know if this is wrong to say, but I think I get called for more stuff just based off us just not winning,” Gardner said. “I watch these winning programs and there’s some egregious things and it don’t get called, letting the players play. I got called on something today, and I’m just supposed to let him push off on the top of the route?”
Gardner thinks the officials start to view a team like the Jets as a bad team and are predisposed to make calls against them.
“I just feel like us not winning, that’s what’s going on,” Gardner said. “We don’t win, and we don’t get the calls we should get, and we get called for stuff that we probably shouldn’t get called for.”
The Jets had 13 penalties for 101 yards on Monday night. The Dolphins had six penalties for 40 yards.
The 1972 Dolphins are the only team to go undefeated over an entire NFL season and the 2025 edition guaranteed that they won’t become the latest team to have a winless season on Monday night.
Tua Tagovailoa threw a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Darren Waller and running back De’Von Achane ran for another score to help the Dolphins to a 27-21 win over the Jets. The win was much needed in Miami, but the night wasn’t without a major down note for the Dolphins.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill was taken to the hospital after suffering what looked like a severe knee injury in the third quarter of the game. Reports indicated that the team fears he dislocated his knee and confirmation of that would mean a very long road back to the field for the veteran wideout.
Achane finished the night with 19 carries for 96 yards and Tagovailoa was 17-of-25 for 177 yards. Both of his touchdown passes came on drives that started thanks to lost fumbles by the Jets and that wasn’t the only sloppiness for the 0-4 club over the course of the evening.
The Jets were flagged 13 times for 101 yards and those mistakes meant that 197 rushing yards were mostly for naught by the time the clock ran out in the fourth quarter. Justin Fields scored on an impressive and improvisational 43-yard run and hit Garrett Wilson for a 23-yard touchdown with 1:49 left to play, but the Jets weren’t able to get the ensuing onside kick and the other errors over the course of the night were too much to overcome.
Week 5 will see the Jets try for their first win in a home game against the Cowboys while the Dolphins will try to start a winning streak in Carolina.
Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was taken from Hard Rock Stadium to the hospital after suffering a knee injury in the third quarter of Monday night’s game against the Jets and initial reports are that the injury is as severe as it looked on the field.
According to multiple reports, the Dolphins fear Hill dislocated his knee. Hill was injured when his left leg bent awkwardly under him as he was making a catch near the sideline on third down.
Trainers immediately put a stabilizer on Hill’s knee and he was carted of the field. ESPN showed him in a wheelchair on his way to the hospital a short time later.
If that diagnosis is confirmed, Hill will miss the rest of the 2025 season and his availability for 2026 may also be in doubt given how long it takes to recover from that injury.
