I’ve mostly discontinued my Do Not Watch This Game column. I used to write a weekly column where I featured one game big sports game, which for one reason or another, I thought would be good to skip if you were looking to skip a game. I thought it would be a useful column for people in relationships where one partner is a sports fan and the other isn’t. For the non-sports fan, it provides a suggestion about when it would be good to sneak something else into the schedule or to negotiate a little harder for the television, knowing that the game in question is of dubious value. For the sports fan, it’s a good reminder not to buy the hype surrounding the game which is all too often easy enough to do if you’re not paying attention. I discontinued it as a weekly feature but this week, there’s a game that is so screaming out to be ignored, that I decided to take the Do Not Watch This Game column for an encore spin around the block.
Thursday, 8:25 p.m. ET, NFL Football, Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s on the NFL Network, but do not watch this game!
Look, I’m not going to tell you there’s no drama in this game — there is — but the drama is because both teams have a very strong incentive to lose! The Titans and Jaguars are both 2-12 and locked in a close battle for last place with three other teams: the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are also 2-12 and the New York Jets are 3-13. The last place team is rewarded with the first pick in next year’s NFL draft, the second worst team, the second pick, and so on. The difference between the overall first pick and the fifth is often huge. In next year’s draft, there are really only two great quarterbacks prospects (by far the most important position in football) and one of them, Jameis Winston, poses real character issues after his many off-the-field issues. So, these five teams are fervently devoted to losing as much as they can in the final two weeks of the season to try to snag the first overall pick.
That may make for compelling drama but it’s not great for the prospect of watching a game that pits one of this cohort against another — and that’s just what we have on Thursday night with this game between Tennessee and Jacksonville. These teams are not only bad but they’re not very entertaining either. Last week the Titans didn’t score a touchdown all game… and they were playing the also-bad New York Jets! The Jaguars managed to score 12 points last week, one more than the Titans, but also didn’t score a touchdown. They scored four field goals. On their way to doing that, they managed to allow their quarterback Blake Bortles to be sacked eight times and hit a total of 15 times. That’s not great for his long-term future and it’s not great for his prospects in this game, only four days later. Last week was no aberration either, these teams are used to not scoring many points — the Titans average 16.5 points per game and the Jaguars 15.1. Expect this game to be low scoring as well.
Fantasy Football, particularly this week when most fantasy leagues have their championship games, can make even the dullest of team football games exciting for viewers because of their allegiances to individual players. Honestly though, if you’re starting a player from either of these teams… you’re probably not in the championship game. CBS doesn’t have a single quarterback, wide receiver, or running back from this game ranked in the top twenty at their respective positions.
If I haven’t managed to convince you yet, I will leave you with this: this weekend is not only the last weekend before Christmas, it’s also overflowing with football. There are two NFL games on national television this Saturday: the Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins at 4:30 and the San Diego Chargers at San Francisco 49ers at 8:30. Those are not great games but they’re 1,000 times better than this one. Watch those if you want but do not watch this game between the Titans and Jaguars!