It’s finally here, the start of the NFL season!
The Buffalo Bills kick off the 2019 campaign Sunday afternoon facing a familiar foe: the New York Jets.
Both teams are banking on second-year quarterbacks to take the next step forward, as both squads used first-round picks during the 2018 NFL Draft to select their franchise quarterbacks: The Jets picked Sam Darnold with the No. 3 overall pick, and the Bills tabbed Josh Allen with the No. 7 selection.
On Sunday, when the Bills travel to MetLife Stadium to face the Jets at 1 p.m. Eastern, the season-opener for both teams featuring these budding signal-callers will be broadcast almost exclusively to a northeast audience.
CBS’s telecast of the Bills and Jets will be the featured national telecast among the early games for fans living in all of New York along with Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey, as well as pockets of Pennsylvania, Wyoming (hello, Josh Allen), and Nebraska.
The No. 4 broadcasting team of Kevin Harlan (play-by-play) and Rich Gannon (analyst) will handle the Bills/Jets clash.
The areas that can see the game are highlighted in yellow (map courtesy of 506sports):
The early national CBS audience is rather segmented for Week 1, with the No. 1 broadcast team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo calling the Tennessee Titans at the Cleveland Browns (in red), followed by the Kansas City Chiefs at Jacksonville Jaguars (blue), and Baltimore Ravens at Miami Dolphins (teal). The two late games on the map are: The Indianapolis Colts at the Los Angeles Chargers (green), and the Cincinnati Bengals at the Seattle Seahawks (orange).
This is the 118th meeting all-time between these teams. Buffalo leads the all-time series 62-55, splitting the 2018 season series with the Jets. Buffalo trounced New York 41-10 in Week 10 at MetLife Stadium, and dropped a 27-23 decision to the Jets in Week 13 at New Era Field.