The Dolphins’ regular season finale at the Patriots will be played at 4:25 p.m. Sunday, the NFL announced late Sunday night. Fox (WSVN 7 locally) will televise the game in South Florida and in much of the Eastern and Mountain time zones.
The Patriots (13-3) can claim the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a win against the Dolphins (7-9) and a Denver loss at home against the Chargers.
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When two teams are competing for a playoff berth or a top seed in different games, the league generally likes to play those games at the same time, on different networks, in Week 18. That will be the case here; CBS will televise the Broncos-Chargers game at 4:25 p.m. while the Dolphins play the Patriots on Fox.
The season will close with a Baltimore-at-Pittsburgh game on Sunday night on NBC. The winner of that game wins the AFC North and the loser misses the playoffs.
ABC and ESPN will get two games with high stakes on Saturday: Panthers-Buccaneers at 4:30 p.m. (Carolina wins the NFC South with a win; Tampa Bay wins the division with a win and at Atlanta loss) and Seahawks-49ers, an 8 p.m. game that will determine the NFC West winner and the top seed in the conference.
The 1 p.m. Sunday games feature three regional telecasts on CBS (Packers-Vikings, Browns-Bengals, Colts-Texans) and three on Fox (Cowboys-Giants, Saints-Falcons, Titans-Jaguars).
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The 4:25 p.m. Sunday games feature four telecasts on CBS (Chargers-Broncos, Chiefs-Raiders, Commanders-Eagles, Jets-Bills) and three on Fox (Dolphins-Patriots, Cardinals-Rams, Lions-Bears).
CBS and Fox will each carry double-headers in Week 18.
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