Nearing the end of one of the worst seasons in the 20-year history of the franchise, the Ravens have been flexed out of Sunday Night Football for the second time in three weeks.
With the New York Giants defeating Miami on Monday night, the 4-9 Ravens officially learned that their Dec. 27 meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium will be moved to 1 p.m. and be televised on CBS. The NFL elected to move the Giants’ Week 16 game at Minnesota to Sunday Night Football on NBC.
Should the Dolphins have won, the Ravens-Steelers game would have remained in its original Sunday night slot after the NFL announced the scenarios on Monday afternoon.
Sunday’s 35-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks was a home game originally scheduled for a prime-time audience, but the Ravens never recovered from an 0-3 start to 2015 and were officially eliminated from postseason contention in Week 14. Needless to say, there isn’t much demand for a non-contending team to play in front of a national audience late in the season.
This will mark the first season since 2006 that Baltimore will not host a prime-time game. The Ravens have been flexed out of three originally-scheduled Sunday night home games over the last three seasons with the first occurring in a game against New England in 2013.
Despite suffering their first losing season under John Harbaugh, the Ravens can still play spoiler against the playoff-contending Steelers and will look for a season sweep in the penultimate game of the year. The Ravens won in overtime at Pittsburgh on Oct. 1, but star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not play for the Steelers due to a knee injury.
The Ravens will need to win one of their three remaining games to avoid tying the worst record in franchise history, which was a 4-12 mark in their inaugural season in Baltimore in 1996.
Luke Jones
Luke Jones is the Ravens and Orioles beat reporter for WNST BaltimorePositive.com and is a PFWA member. His mind is consumed with useless sports knowledge, pro wrestling promos, and movie quotes, but he often forgets where he put his phone. Luke's favorite sports memories include being one of the thousands of kids who waited for Cal Ripken's autograph after Orioles games in the summer of 1995, attending the Super Bowl XXXV victory parade with his dad in the pouring rain, and watching the Terps advance to the Final Four at the Carrier Dome in 2002. Follow him on social media @BaltimoreLuke or email him at Luke@wnst.net.
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