Patriots vs. Chiefs game flexed out of Monday Night Football

The New England Patriots won’t face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football after all.

The NFL announced Thursday that the Week 15 matchup between the Patriots and Chiefs has been flexed out of Monday night and will instead be played on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. and broadcast on Fox. In place of the Patriots and Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks will move into the primetime slot on ESPN.

The decision marks the first time in history a game has been flexed out of Monday Night Football and served as a blunt acknowledgement of how far the Patriots have fallen.

Currently 2-9 on the season, the Patriots are one of the worst teams in the NFL and rank second-to-last in the league with 13.5 points per game. They are expected to be heavy underdogs against the defending Super Bowl champions, who enter the weekend 8-3 and as one of the AFC’s top teams.

Recognizing the potential for a blowout, league executives opted to take advantage of the newly expanded flex scheduling that took effect this year, allowing games to be moved from Monday or Thursday nights.

As a result the Patriots will not appear on Monday Night Football this season, but the team is still scheduled to play two more games in primetime. Following this Sunday afternoon’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Patriots are scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football in Week 14. The game against the Chiefs will follow that, and then Week 16 the Patriots will face the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football on Christmas Eve. Both the Steelers and Broncos games are scheduled to kick off at 8:15 p.m.

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