Here’s a look at the announcing assignments for Week 8 of the NFL season, with some discussion of a featured game in each slot based on broadcasters, matchups, or both. All times are Eastern.
Featured/only game: Minnesota at LA Rams
Prime Video 8:15 p.m.
Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit, Kaylee Hartung
Spanish: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú
Westwood One Radio: Ryan Radtke, Ron Rivera
The 5-1 Vikings are coming off their only loss of the season to date, falling 31-29 at home against the Detroit Lions Sunday. In that one, quarterback Sam Darnold completed 22 of 27 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown but also tossed his fifth interception of the season. Now, he and the Vikings get what should be an easier opponent in the 2-4 Rams, but they’re only 2.5-point favorites. And, notably, the Rams are 2-1 at home.
For Los Angeles, this season isn’t going the way they hoped, but they will get some reinforcements. Wide receiver Cooper Kupp is expected to return from injury, and fellow receiver Puka Nacua could also return. That could help QB Matthew Stafford, who’s having one of his rougher years: he’s thrown for 1,392 yards and three touchdowns to date, with a 66.7 percent completion rate and four interceptions.
Interestingly, Stafford has been mentioned in some trade conversations lately, especially around Minnesota. On Tuesday, Snapback Sports founder Jack Settleman cited sources saying the Vikings were “in serious trade talks for Matthew Stafford.” Minnesota Star-Tribune Vikings’ beat writer Ben Gosseling cited his own source saying there was “zero truth” to that Wednesday, so this may not be an actual thing, especially with Darnold doing as well as he has (1,370 passing yards and 12 touchdowns and five interceptions, and a 66.5 percent completion mark) to date.
But it’s still fascinating to see Stafford square off against a team that kept coming up in these rumors.
Featured game 1: Philadelphia at Cincinnati
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, Evan Washburn
This clash of the 1-4 Bengals and 4-2 Eagles was flexed out of the afternoon window in favor of the Chicago Bears-Washington Commanders matchup, but there are still things to like with it. CBS has the doubleheader this week, which is going to most of the country. And while Cincinnati’s record to date hasn’t been great, quarterback Joe Burrow has played quite well, throwing for 1,759 yards and 14 touchdowns with two interceptions and a 70.4 percent completion rate to date. And the Bengals are 2.5-point favorites here.
On the Eagles’ side, they’re coming off an impressive 28-3 road win over the New York Giants last week and a 20-16 home win over the Cleveland Browns the week before. But this season still hasn’t gone quite as well as they would have hoped, particularly with losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons (both currently 4-3). And head coach Nick Sirianni has come under some fire, including for interactions with fans and media after that win over the Browns.
So there’s lots to watch with them as well.
Baltimore at Cleveland
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Tom McCarthy, Jay Feely, Ross Tucker, Amanda Balionis
Tennessee at Detroit
Fox 1 p.m.
Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Laura Okmin
Compass Media Radio: Bill Rosinski, Merril Hoge
Indianapolis at Houston
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Andrew Catalon, Tiki Barber, AJ Ross
Featured game 2: Green Bay at Jacksonville
Fox 1 p.m.
Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma, Megan Olivi
Fox has the singleheader this week, and while their top team of Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady is at the late Buffalo-Seattle clash, this early-window one is going to almost as much of a swathe of the country. And there’s lots to consider here. The Packers are 5-2 but third in the NFC North thanks to the success of the 5-1 Lions and Vikings, and they’re not far ahead of the 4-2 Chicago Bears. So they could definitely use a victory here.
Green Bay enters this as a 4.5-point favorite, which makes sense. The 2-5 Jaguars certainly haven’t been impressive overall to date, and they’ve allowed the most passing touchdowns (16) in the league. But they are coming off a win after beating the New England Patriots 32-16 last week.
We’ll see what they can do here.
Arizona at Miami
Fox 1 p.m.
Jason Benetti, Mark Schlereth, Jan Hale
NY Jets at New England
CBS/Paramount+ 1 p.m.
Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, Aditi Kinkhabwala
Sports USA Radio: Larry Kahn, James White
Atlanta at Tampa Bay
Fox 1 p.m.
Adam Amin, Greg Olsen, Pam Oliver
ESPN Radio: Chris Carlin, Darius Butler
New Orleans at LA Chargers
Fox 4:05 p.m.
Chris Myers, Mark Sanchez, Kristina Pink
Featured game 1: Buffalo at Seattle
Fox 4:05 p.m.
Kevin Burkhardt, Tom Brady, Erin Andrews, Tom Rinaldi
Sports USA Radio: Josh Appel, Brandon Noble
There’s a good clash brewing here between the 5-2 Bills and 4-3 Seahawks. The Bills (3.5-point favorites) are coming off an impressive 34-10 win over the Tennessee Titans and a previous 23-20 win over the New York Jets, but they had two straight losses before that. Meanwhile, the Seahawks beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-14 last week but lost three straight consecutive games before that.
A key question with Seattle has been the play of quarterback Geno Smith. He’s thrown for 1,985 yards so far but with eight touchdowns and six interceptions (and a 68.5 percent completion rate). And his last few games haven’t been his most impressive; he threw for 207 yards last week (albeit with two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 64.3 percent completion mark), and while he threw for 312 and a touchdown the week before, that came with two interceptions and just a 57.5 percent completion rate.
Carolina at Denver
CBS/Paramount+ 4:25 p.m.
Chris Lewis, Jason McCourty, Amanda Guerra
Kansas City at Las Vegas
CBS/Paramount+ 4:25 p.m.
Kevin Harlan, Trent Green, Melanie Collins
ESPN Radio: Steve Levy, Max Starks
Featured game 2: Chicago at Washington
CBS/Paramount+ 4:25 p.m.
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo, Tracy Wolfson
Compass Media Radio: Chris Carrino, Brian Baldinger
As mentioned above, this game got flexed into the Sunday afternoon slot, and for good reason. It’s a great matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 overall draft picks from this year, Bears’ QB Caleb Williams and Commanders’ QB Jayden Daniels (although it remains unclear if Daniels will actually be available). And they’ve thrown for 1,317 and nine touchdowns and 1,410 yards and six touchdowns so far, respectively, and have both received significant praise.
The Bears and Commanders are 4-2 and 5-2 so far this year, respectively. Chicago’s on a three-game win streak and coming off a bye, while Washington thumped the Carolina Panthers 40-7 last week. And the Commanders enter this one as 10.5-point favorites. This could be particularly critical for the Bears, as they look up at the other three teams in the NFC North, but Washington only has a one-game NFC East lead over Philadelphia at the moment, so it matters for them, too.
It will also be interesting to see how Romo evaluates these two top rookie quarterbacks.
Featured/only game: Dallas at San Francisco
NBC/Universo/Peacock 8:20 p.m.
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark
Universo: Miguel Gurwitz, Rolando Cantú, Ariana Figuera
Westwood One Radio: Ryan Radtke, Mike Golic
There’s been a lot of furor around the Cowboys recently, from owner/GM Jerry Jones’ feud with local radio hosts to former Dallas players criticizing fan tours of the facilities in an ESPN.com article from Kalyn Kahler. But the larger story is that this team, which came into this season with such high expectations, is just 3-3. And quarterback Dak Prescott, who signed a giant contract extension just before the season, has thrown for 1,602 yards and eight touchdowns, but with six interceptions and a 63.4 percent completion rate.
Meanwhile, the 4.5-point favorite 49ers have their own unfulfilled expectations so far to date. After their run to last year’s Super Bowl, there were sky-high expectations for them this year, but they’ve only gotten off to a 3-4 start to this point. Brock Purdy has thrown for 1,841 yards and nine touchdowns but with seven interceptions and a 63.9 percent completion rate.
So we’ll see what he can do in this clash.
Featured/only game: NY Giants at Pittsburgh
ABC & ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes/ESPN+ 8:15 p.m.
Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, sideline reporter to be announced
ESPN2/ESPN+: Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Bill Belichick, Guests TBA
ESPN Deportes: Rebeca Landa, Sebastián Martinez-Christensen, MJ Acosta-Ruiz
Westwood One: Kevin Harlan, Devin McCourty
The 2-5 Giants are entering this one following the aforementioned 28-3 drubbing by the Eagles, and they’re just 2-5 on the year. They’re facing a lot of questions about the play of quarterback Daniel Jones in particular. The team signed him to a four-year, $160-million extension last year, but he threw for just 909 yards that year due to injuries, which eventually saw him ruled out for the season after suffering a torn ACL in Week 9. And this year, he’s thrown for 1,442 yards and six touchdowns, but with four interceptions and a 62.5 percent completion rate.
Meanwhile, the 5-2 Steelers face their own quarterback questions. They beat the New York Jets 37-15 last week, but there are questions about how effective newly returned starter Russell Wilson will continue to be. Wilson threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns last week but only completed 16 of 29 passing attempts.
He will be starting again this week (and even has a Primanti Bros. sandwich named after him), but it remains to be seen if he’ll be Pittsburgh’s long-term quarterback answer.
H/T Sammy for the listings!
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