Ian Eagle:

Atlanta (at Detroit) and Oakland (at Washington) are both three point road favorites, highlighting the slate of NFL Week 3 games. The Patriots are favored by two touchdowns in Foxboro against Houston in a rematch of last year’s playoff game. The Browns are surprise road favorites at Indianapolis as the Colts continue their post-deflategate descent into the abyss.

The bad news is that Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts will again be calling the Pats game. If you have surround sound set up as part of your entertainment system just mute (or unplug) the front center speaker. Voila! No more insane commentary from the Bird and the Beard.

The 6-1 New England Patriots and 4-3 Buffalo Bills renew their rivalry in Week 8. The AFC East clubs meet for the 114th time since the American Football League’s inception in 1960. The Patriots lead the series 69-43-1 and would love to avenge their sole loss on the 2016 season. The game kicks off at 1:00 pm eastern time at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York.

On Monday the Patriots were listed as 6½ point road favorites.

After an impressive 33-13 victory at Cleveland, the Patriots return to Foxboro to face the Cincinnati Bengals. Gillette Stadium will be rocking for the 2016 home debut of Tom Brady after his four game Article 46 exile. With clear skies and only a slight breeze perhaps the wine and cheese crowd might even remain in their red seats and brave the 67° forecasted temperature to view TB12 live, rather than retreating to the Putnam Club lounge.

The game kicks off at 1:00 pm eastern time with fairly extensive nationwide coverage by CBS. Ian Eagle will handle the play-by-play duties, with Dan Fouts adding in the commentary. Why these two are considered by CBS to be the number two broadcast team while the Greg Gumbel-Trent Green duo is third is baffling.

For the second week in a row the best teams in each conference will not be televised in the late afternoon slot, but will instead receive primary network distribution among the NFL games kicking off early. CBS will televise the 12-2 New England Patriots at the 9-5 New York Jets in all or parts of 29 states, while FOX will air the 14-0 Carolina Panthers at the 7-7 Atlanta Falcons in all or parts of 40 states. The amount of coverage given divisional rivalries in an early time slot is quite rare; usually the early games are somewhat equally divided with regional coverage.

So wait, Thursday Night Football will be on Saturday after the season already opened with Sunday Night Football on Thursday?