Bills vs Panthers game will be played on Sunday, December 19th

The Bills stay put on Sunday

The Buffalo Bills’ game against the Carolina Panthers in Week 15 was a potential Saturday flex option, but the NFL announced on Tuesday that it would be played on Sunday, December 19 at 1:00 PM Eastern and not Saturday, December 18.

Instead, the NFL flexed the New England Patriots vs Indianapolis Colts to primetime at 8:20 and the Las Vegas Raiders and Cleveland Browns to the late afternoon time slot.

The NFL added this schedule feature last year to get more nationally televised games while college football isn’t playing on Saturdays. The Bills beat the Denver Broncos last year in a flex game on Saturday afternoon.

The first-place New England Patriots and surging Indianapolis Colts makes for a great primetime game out of the five options available. That is the game between New England’s two games against Buffalo, and will give them an extra day of rest prior to their December 26 contest. It will also considerably shorten their prep work for Indy, as they play Buffalo on the previous Monday night.

Back in May during the schedule release I said the Bills vs Panthers wasn’t a sexy matchup for this week. The terrible starts by the Washington Football Team, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets coupled with a sub-.500 Philadelphia Eagles team knocked those games off the list and back to Sunday. That left the only two games featuring teams at .500 or better.