The COVID-19 world we live in has caused many uncertainties. While the NFL seems immune to such circumstances, it is not, and that has hit a fever pitch on Wednesday and it involves the Buffalo Bills.
In Week 5, the Bills are scheduled to visit the Tennessee Titans. But the Titans have been under a microscope for a week because of COVID-19. The Titans had nearly a week straight of positive test results for coronavirus, but that finally stopped on Monday and Tuesday.
Tennessee had two-straight days of no positive results. That all went for naught.
On Wednesday, two more members of the Titans organization were deemed positive for the virus. The hope was that the Titans would find a way to get back to practice on Wednesday to prepare for the Bills, but that’s not happening. So what does the NFL do?
The word “forfeit” is being tossed out there.
Because of the NFL’s schedule, there’s some speculation that the Titans might have to do just that with the Bills. Among national analysts that have mentioned that: ESPN’s Dianna Russini and ESPN’s Dan Graziano on the world-wide leader’s morning program, Get Up.
The #Titans are in a difficult position for many reasons. The #Bills play next Thursday night against the Chiefs. Moving Bills/Titans game to Monday seems impossible with this schedule. Canceling or forfeiting may be the only options.
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) October 7, 2020
There’s two big keys in regard to this, one for each team. Because of the Titans’ week-long battle with the virus outbreak in their clubhouse, their Week 4 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was already postponed. Tennessee’s bye week this season could be an area of where that game could be actually played. Because that’s already being used, the Titans don’t have that option for their meeting with the Bills.
In other cases, the NFL has moved games back a day to Monday in order to get them played. That was the case with the Patriots and Chiefs last weekend, who first played on Sunday, but had their game moved to Monday because of a positive test for both teams.
That’s also off the table, though. The Bills in Week 6 are scheduled to play against the Chiefs… and that’s on Thursday Night Football. If that’s still scheduled to go down and not moved, Buffalo’s cannot play on Monday against the Titans and then Thursday against the Chiefs. That is not enough days in between games.
Aside from a forfeit, the NFL has to choose between moving that Thursday game potentially to Sunday, pushing Bills-Titans to a “Week 18” after the regular season concludes, or hit the eject button and force the Titans for forfeit. The league could be researching how badly the Titans had broken COVID-19 related safety protocol to justify potentially forfeiting the game.
If that does happen, folks in Pittsburgh certainly won’t be happy.
As of Wednesday, the Titans have not been at team faculties since Sept. 28 and will now not get in a “normal” work week ahead of facing Buffalo, no matter what. Typically NFL teams start preparing for their next opponent on Wednesdays and with the latest additional positive tests, that won’t be the case for the Titans.
Stay tuned to Bills Wire for the latest updates on the Bills-Titans Week 5 meeting.
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