The kickoff time for “Monday Night Football” usually comes at 8:15 p.m. ET, but that will be changing for the Week 17 showdown between the Bills and Bengals.
The start of the game is going to be delayed 15 minutes this week with the new kickoff time coming at 8:30 p.m. ET. The delay is happening so that ESPN can accommodate the Rose Bowl, which kicks off at 5 p.m. ET on Monday with Penn State playing Utah.
The all sports network is going to show the Rose Bowl in its entirety before switching over to the Monday night game. Since there’s a chance the Rose Bowl could still be going on when Bills-Bengals kicks off, ESPN will also be airing the NFL game on ABC so that no one will have to miss a single down.
The game in Cincinnati will mark the final Monday night game of the regular season and it should be a wild one. For one, it’s an unprecedented showdown for a Monday game this late in the season. The 23 combined wins for both teams are tied for the most in a Monday game. The only other game to hit that mark came in 1997 when the 12-2 49ers played the 11-3 Broncos (Denver lost that game but went on to win the Super Bowl that year).
The Bengals (11-4) will go into the game knowing that a win will clinch the AFC North while the Bills (12-3) will go into the game knowing that a win will put them in the driver’s seat to earn the first overall seed in the AFC playoffs.
If the Bengals win, it will guarantee them at least the No. 3 seed in the AFC and it would open the door for them to possibly earn the No. 1 overall seed. However, for the Bengals to clinch the top seed, not only would they need to beat the Bills on Monday and the Ravens next week, but they’d also need the Chiefs to lose to the Raiders in Week 17.
If the Bills win, they’ll move past Kansas City for the top seed in the AFC and then they could officially clinch the top spot with a win over the Patriots in Week 18.
This game will mark the first time the Bills and Bengals have met in January since January 1989 when Cincinnati topped Buffalo in the AFC title game.