After the Eagles and Bears both won games with major NFC playoff implications in Week 14, the NFL decided to give their meeting in Week 16 a prime time audience.
The Bears-Eagles game in Philadelphia has been moved from its previously scheduled 1 p.m. Eastern kickoff on FOX to Sunday Night Football on NBC. Chicago is currently tied with Detroit for NFC North supremacy (though the Lions own the tiebreaker), while Philadelphia is currently one game ahead of Dallas in the NFC East. That makes Bears-Eagles a big game.
The Patriots-Ravens game in Baltimore that had been scheduled for Sunday Night Football on December 22 has now been moved to a 4:25 p.m. kickoff on CBS. Although the Patriots and Ravens are both fighting for playoff spots, Bears-Eagles is the game that will draw the bigger audience.
There’s a good chance that either the Bears or the Eagles will play on Sunday night in Week 17 as well. The NFL tries to put a game with playoff implications for both teams in the final prime time matchup, and the most likely Week 17 candidates are Eagles-Cowboys as a battle for the NFC East or Bears-Packers as a battle for the NFC North. The Week 17 prime time game will be announced after Week 16, when all the playoff scenarios are known.