Captain Fear
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The Raiders’ latest run-in with COVID-19 has resulted in their Sunday game being flexed out of prime time. The next question is whether the game will be moved to Monday or Tuesday.
The Raiders surely would prefer a delay, given that they are missing key pieces during the practice week as the enhanced pandemic protocols knock out players who were exposed to players who tested positive. The Buccaneers surely would prefer to proceed on Sunday, given that they’ll be more likely to win if the Raiders aren’t ready or if they are shorthanded.
Bucs coach Bruce Arians is prepared for the possibility of the game moving from Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET.
“We’ll just go back to practicing and take the extra days to work situational football,” Arians told reporters on Friday, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “We’ve got a plan in case it goes to Monday or Tuesday or whatever the case but I don’t see it moving right now.”
Plenty of fans would like to see the game be moved to prime time on Monday or Tuesday, because it would be a good game to watch on a stand-alone basis. Especially in and around Boston, where the Patriots are playing at 4:25 p.m. ET and fans would surely love to watch both the Pats and #Tommy.
Currently, with CBS having the Sunday doubleheader this weekend, the FOX-televised Bucs-Raiders game will end up lost in a regional-broadcast window. A game of that magnitude cries out for a bigger platform, which would result in a much larger rating.
The challenge for the league becomes balancing potential benefit to the Raiders with potential detriment to the Buccaneers, who already are under orders not to fraternize with the Raiders after the game ends. But since the Buccaneers play the following Monday night (at the Giants), a Tuesday-to-Sunday turnaround wouldn’t be required.
However it plays out, as a football fan it’s hard not to root for a delay until Monday night or Tuesday night. If that’s going to happen, it’s surely going to happen soon.