Bills Week 15 game at Pittsburgh flexed into prime-time national TV window

ORCHARD PARK – The Buffalo Bills’ 26-15 victory over Dallas on Thanksgiving Day has apparently made quite an impression on the NFL.

Sunday night, the league announced that the Bills’ Dec. 15 game at Pittsburgh, originally scheduled for 1 p.m., has been flexed into the prime-time position at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.

It will be the first time since 2007 the Bills have played in that time slot which is now considered the biggest game of the week, broadcast by announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.

NBC was originally going to show the Vikings at Chargers on Dec. 15, but Los Angeles’ loss to Denver Sunday dropped its record to 4-8 and out of playoff contention. The Steelers defeated the Browns Sunday, 20-13, and moved to 7-5. They are tied with the Tennessee Titans in the race for the second wild-card berth. Buffalo at 9-3 is in control of the first wild-card berth.

Previously, the league announced that the Week 16 game at New England was also flexed from Sunday afternoon into the Saturday, Dec. 21 national broadcast window on NFL Network at 4:30, meaning the Bills will play three of their final five games on national TV.

Clearly, with one of the best defenses in the NFL, and a young, exciting quarterback in Josh Allen who is starting to open eyes, the Bills are being recognized as a team to watch.

Their performance on Thursday, in what was the most-watched Thanksgiving Day game in more than 30 years, was well received by football nation.

This will be foreign territory for the Bills. Because of their nearly two decades of futility since the start of the 21st century, the Bills have not been a prime-time entity. Since the start of 2000, they have made it to the postseason only once (2017) and have played only eight times on Sunday night, seven times on Monday night, eight times on Thursday, and twice on Saturday.

That game against the Patriots is the only one the Bills have played on NBC's Sunday Night Football, the fewest any team in the NFL has appeared in this game.

NBC took over the Sunday night package in 2006 and almost immediately it surpassed Monday Night Football, by then on ESPN, as the true national game of the week. The Bills' other Sunday night games were either on ESPN or TNT.

That night in mid-November 2007, the Bills were embarrassed as the Patriots were on their way to an undefeated 16-0 regular season. Tom Brady threw for 373 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Randy Moss in the second quarter as New England opened a 35-7 lead and mugged for the cameras the rest of the way.

Buffalo's all-time prime-time record is 32-44, and the complete list of games takes up only one concise page in the team media guide.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com