State Of Affairs: Patriots-Raiders Flexed Out Of SNF

Featured Photo by Ashley Landis/AP Photo

The 2022 season has not gone according to plan for the New England Patriots. On the surface things don’t look so bad. The team is 6-6 and one game out of a playoff spot. This however is the reason why you have to actually watch the games. Not just look at numbers alone.

The numbers don’t paint an accurate picture. They don’t tell you that the best quarterback New England has beaten all year is Jared Goff. New England is not a good football team, and got to six wins by beating up on inferior opponents.

Anytime the play a good team, they stink. Plain and simple. Their offense is unwatchable. It’s so bad that NBC doesn’t want to make America suffer for three hours.

The Patriots’ road game against the Raiders on Sunday Dec. 18 is moving from 8:20 p.m. ET to 4:05 p.m. ET, the NFL announced today.

— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 5, 2022

The NFL announced that they flexed the Patriots versus Las Vegas Raiders showdown to the 4:05 PM EST time slot. Why is this such a big deal? Well, the NFL and NBC essentially just deemed this game unworthy of primetime.

I don’t blame them. As a Patriots fan I’m obligated to watch, no matter how unwatchable they may be. The rest of America is not, and lucky them. This offense is at times putrid.

New England currently ranks 20th in the NFL in points per game with 20.8. That number is pretty skewed when you consider the Patriots scored 67 points in the two Bailey Zappe starts.

The Patriots have scored 30 or more points just once all year. In seven of their twelve games, the Patriots scored less than 25 points. New England ranks 31st in the NFL in Red Zone touchdown scoring percentage (37.5%).

Only the Broncos are worse in that category. It’s not exactly great to be compared to the Broncos offense this year. At times, New England has looked just as incompetent as them on offense.

This should be a primtime showdown too. It’s Belichick against McDaniels. Two teams that should be playoff contenders going toe-to-toe. The storylines are teed up perfectly for Sunday night.

To be fair it’s not all on New England. The Raiders are just 5-7 and have dissapointed as well. Even though both teams technically are in the heat of the AFC playoff race, the truth is these teams are longshots to get in.

It’s telling of the state of affairs in New England that this happened. Does anyone remember the last time the Pats were flexed OUT of primetime? I genuinely can’t remember, if ever in my lifetime that this has happened. Usually it’s the opposite.

For the first time really ever in my life, the Patriots are not must see football. Quite the opposite actually. Oh how I long for the Brady years. Andy Bernard said it best.

Amen Nard Dog. Amen.