How to make TNF better?

[Heinz D.]

On 11/9/2018 at 8:07 PM, Broncofan said:

Drop a preseason game from the teams schedule.

Add a 2nd bye week for each team.

Let each team have a bye before they play on TNF.  

You wouldn't even have to eliminate a preseason game (not that I'm against that, or anything). It doesn't matter much if the Super Bowl is played a week later...

14 hours ago, amazingandre said:

Make it only divisional games. Teams know each other better and will have an advantage of playing a divisional opponent from a preparation stand point. 

Good idea. Even if it's not possible to have that 100% of the time, steer things that way. 

[JAF-N72EX]

21 hours ago, Asciimo said:

all this proves is that the giants and cowboys are bad.

As a Pats fan, I wouldn't go there if I were you. Giants and Cowboys prime time games are atleast more competitive than Patriots games are.

In fact, I could argue that the Patriots have helped "ruin" PT games during the same stretch. Considering they have most appearances (tied w/ Steelers at 40) and have the third highest average point differential(16.1).

Meanwhile, the Cowboys have the 22nd highest average point differential (10.4) on 39 appearance. The Giants have the 12th highest average point differential(12.6) in 26 appearances.

 

[Broncofan]

10 hours ago, Heinz D. said:

You wouldn't even have to eliminate a preseason game (not that I'm against that, or anything). It doesn't matter much if the Super Bowl is played a week later...

I don't really care either way, but if you eliminate the preseason game, then you can present it as no extra time spent for the players.    If they don't care, then no need to eliminate, but if it matters, easiest solution that ensures no one loses.  Of course, that's why it likely never even gets entertained.

[Malik]

there's always going to be bad games regardless of how well you schedule it. there have been plenty of awful SNF games when two marquee teams face. That Packers v Patriots game was awful

[Malik]

On 11/10/2018 at 12:50 AM, JustAnotherFan said:

Just for clarity sakes. This chart shows; the number of late games played on each day of the week since the inception of TNF (2006). The 2nd column is the avg point differential and then the med point differential. 

Day	# of Gs	AVG PD	MED PD
Fri	1	25	25
Mon	215	12	10
Sat	18	9	8
Sun	207	13	10
Thu	145	13	10
Tue	1	10	10
Wed	1	7	7

 

As you can see above, SNF and MNF obviously have more games but the average PD in TNF games are just as "bad" as SNF is terms of competitive games, with MNF being superior than both of them. 

Just food for thought.

2nd edit to add more
This shows the same as above with more context. Including % of OT games, games decide by 3 points or less, games decided by one score or less(8 points), games decided by 2 scores or less(16 points) and games decided by 3 scores or more (17+ points).

 

 

Day	# of Gs	AVG PD	MED PD	% of OT Gs	% of 3 pts or less	% of 1 Score Gs	% of 2 Scores or less	% of 3 scores or more
Fri	1	25	25	0%	0%	0%	0%	100%
Mon	215	12	10	5%	23%	45%	70%	30%
Sat	18	9	8	6%	28%	50%	89%	11%
Sun	207	13	10	5%	19%	44%	68%	31%
Thu	145	13	10	4%	14%	46%	69%	31%
Tue	1	10	10	0%	0%	0%	100%	0%
Wed	1	7	7	0%	0%	100%	100%	0%

Almost like TNF being bad is just confirmation bias.

[tom cody]

The bye week suggestion is good. You'd have 2 well rested teams coming into the Thursday game. Also I believe every team has to play a Thursday night game, get rid of that as well.