The NFL’s "Thursday Night Football" games have a reputation for not being the best games of the week. This week’s contest between the winless Browns (0-9) and the Ravens (4-4) won’t do much, on the surface, to inspire fans to tune in.
But should you ignore it? No, and here are five reasons to watch NFL Network Thursday night at 8:25 ET.
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1. As Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey said after Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys, the Browns are “not going to go 0-16.” Against an opponent the Browns know very well, they could get their first win. Do you really want to miss that?
2. The Browns have played the Ravens close, with eight of the past 10 games decided by a single score. Last year’s game in Baltimore went to overtime, with the Browns pulling off a 33-30 victory. Baltimore’s Week 2 win this season was just a five-point game, so Thursday’s contest promises to be competitive.
3. Browns rookie receiver Corey Coleman is back from a broken hand that caused him to miss six games. He’s averaging more than 21 yards per catch and will look to get deep against Baltimore’s secondary. Baltimore has its own big-play threat in the speedy Mike Wallace, who has 39 catches for 614 yards and four touchdowns. He scored on a 95-yard pass play last week and is the only player in NFL history with touchdowns of at least 95 yards for two teams, catching a 95-yard touchdown pass in 2011 while with the Steelers.
4. The Ravens also have 16-year veteran Steve Smith at receiver. Smith, in the final season of what is likely a Hall of Fame career, is almost always entertaining. Seeing one of the NFL’s greats in prime-time should be reason enough to watch.
5. While they’re struggling this year, the Browns' offense is young and exciting. Rookie quarterback Cody Kessler has been better than expected after getting thrust into the starting role with injuries to Robert Griffin III and Josh McCown. Receivers Terrelle Pryor and Coleman can be dynamic playmakers and Isaiah Crowell has been one of the league’s more productive running backs this season.
Teams on byes this week are the Bills, Lions, Colts and Raiders.
Broncos (6-3) at Saints (4-4), Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (CBS)
Denver’s “No Fly Zone” defense is definitely getting tested this season. Sunday’s game against the Saints, and the NFL’s top-ranked passing offense, will be the sixth time this season Denver has faced a team with a top-10 passing offense. The Houston Texans, who are in Jacksonville on Sunday, are the only team Denver has faced not among the 14 best pass attacks in the league.
Despite all of this, the Broncos have the league’s best pass defense and have not given up more than 300 passing yards in a regular season game since Dec. 20, 2015. The Broncos have allowed only six passing touchdowns all season.
Enter the Saints and quarterback Drew Brees, who leads the NFL with 336 passing yards per game and his 21 touchdown passes are second behind Matt Ryan’s 23 scoring tosses.
The Broncos will likely be without defensive end Derek Wolfe and cornerback Aqib Talib. Those injuries hurt them against the Raiders and it’s an area the Saints will try to exploit.
The Broncos defense has hit a slump and the Saints this week signed former Broncos safety Shiloh Keo, who may be able to provide some insight to assist a Saints defense that has given up yards in chunks.
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Falcons (6-3) at Eagles (4-4), Sunday, 1 p.m. (Fox)
The Eagles are unbeaten in three home games this season, but rookie quarterback Carson Wentz will have to snap out of his recent funk to outscore the NFL’s best offense.
After turning the ball over just once in Philadelphia’s first five games, an interception in a Week 5 loss to the Lions, Wentz has five turnovers — four interceptions and a fumble — in the past three games. The Eagles have lost four of their past five games as Wentz has completed less than 60 percent of his passes in three of those games.
“We fully believe we are a good football team. We fully know, in all four losses, that we’ve had a chance to win,” Wentz said Sunday. “Most of them, we kind of hurt ourselves.
“We know we’re a good football team and we’re going to bounce back.”
The Falcons are averaging nearly 34 points per game as Ryan leads the NFL in passing yards and touchdowns.
The Eagles do have the NFL’s sixth-ranked defense, but will need their offense to exploit Atlanta’s porous defense that is allowing nearly 29 points per game.
Chiefs (6-2) at Panthers (3-5), Sunday, 1 p.m. (CBS)
The Panthers are hoping to do what the Chiefs did last season. Kansas City began the year 1-5 only to rip off 11 straight wins and reach the divisional round of the AFC playoffs.
The Panthers lost just once last season, but came off their loss in Super Bowl 50 by losing five of their first six games this season. While it hasn’t been pretty, Carolina has won two straight and will look to climb back into playoff contention with another win Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.
“It’s been done before,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Wednesday of Kansas City’s run last season. “We’re going to approach it one game at a time. But it’s been done before.”
The Chiefs, meanwhile, will try to maintain pace with the Raiders in the AFC West.
Seahawks (5-2-1) at Patriots (7-1), Sunday, 8:30 p.m. (NBC)
The schedule makers didn’t do the Seahawks many favors this week. After Monday’s controversial win over the Bills, the Seahawks will travel three time zones on a short week to face a red-hot Patriots team coming off its bye week.
Many of the same pieces are still in place from the 2014 season, which ended with the Patriots eking out a 28-24 victory over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
After missing the first four games of the regular season, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has been terrific. Brady has thrown for 1,319 yards with 12 touchdowns with an interception, and leads the NFL with a 133.9 passer rating.
If Brady takes care of the ball against Seattle’s “Legion of Boom,” the Patriots would be the first team since the 1960 Browns without an interception in the first nine games of the season.
“Turnovers are a huge element and issue in this game," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday. "Whenever you can control that in your favor, it makes a huge difference and generally leads to winning. It’s interesting that New England over the years has done such a great job taking care of the football, particularly in fumble situations, is not turning over to interceptions and throwing a shut out. That’s a big time factor that leads to winning. It’s one of the most important issues that you can stress. They do a fantastic job of it, we’ve always stressed it, we’ve done a really good job of it over the years and we share that concern.”