Are you ready for NFL’s first Saturday doubleheader of 2020?
The NFL is back on Saturdays.
The league’s first Saturday doubleheader of the season is this weekend with the Buffalo Bills at the Denver Broncos (4:30 p.m. ET) and the Carolina Panthers traveling to face the Green Bay Packers (8:15 p.m. ET). Both games will be televised on NFL Network.
The NFL usually takes over the football airwaves on Saturdays once college football’s regular season is complete. But this year they will get competition for television viewers with the SEC championship game being played later in the year than normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Big 12 and Big Ten conference championships are also Saturday but start at noon ET, before the NFL kicks off.
The Bills and Packers were both on the rise in the latest USA TODAY Sports NFL power rankings. Buffalo is favored on the road at Denver, while Green Bay is the favorite at home vs. the Panthers. And both games carry playoff implications.
The Bills, who are favored on the road at Denver, would clinch their first AFC East title since 1995 with a victory. Buffalo (10-3) holds a two-game lead in the division over the Miami Dolphins (8-5) with three games left.
With quarterback Aaron Rodgers vying for his third MVP award — he leads the NFL with 39 touchdown passes and a 119.7 passer rating — the Packers (10-3) enter their game as the favorites against Carolina. Green Bay is leading the race for the NFC’s No. 1 seed ahead of the New Orleans Saints (10-3) based on Green Bay’s 37-30 victory in New Orleans on Sept. 27.
A loss by the Packers against the Panthers, who have lost seven of their last eight games, would put the Saints back in the No. 1 spot — for at least a day. New Orleans will try to keep pace as it faces off with the 12-1 Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, when quarterback Drew Brees returns to the starting lineup.
