The AFC has two 9-2 teams; they’ll meet on Monday night in Foxboro. The NFC has one, and it will leave the friendly confines of the Georgia Dome to face the 7-4 Buccaneers on Sunday in a game that could help the Falcons nail down the top seed in the conference -- or that could open the door for the 8-3 Saints, or the Buccaneers, to take the crown.
When FOX and the NFL moved the Falcons-Bucs game from 1:00 p.m. ET to 4:15 p.m. ET, it was presumed that the contest would become “America’s Game of the Week,” a term FOX applies to the second half of its biweekly doubleheader. As the Tampa Tribune points out, that’s not the case.
Sunday’s game between the Cowboys and the Colts continues to be the primary draw, with the game available in the vast majority of the country.
Per The506.com, the NFC’s game of the week will be shown only in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, North Dakota, and Minnesota. The game between the 1-10 Panthers and the 5-6 Seahawks will receive roughly the same coverage.
Most of the country gets Cowboys-Colts. It’s the Schadenfreude Bowl, with either the the league’s most polarizing team falling to 3-9 or the recently unbeatable Colts and their bitter beer faced quarterback falling to 6-6.
Still, the Falcons-Bucs game will have much more meaning and relevance to the balance of the 2010 season and the playoffs -- something that the Cowboys and quite possibly the Colts won’t experience this year.
So if it’s meaningful football you want to watch on Sunday, you may have to wait until Sunday night to see it.
