Buffalo Bills will host Tennessee Titans in a Week 2 Monday night matchup
The NFL announced Monday morning that the Buffalo Bills will be hosting the Tennessee Titans on Monday night, Sept. 19 as part of a Week 2 prime-time doubleheader.
The Bills and Titans will kick off at 7:15 p.m. with the other game between the Vikings and Eagles starting at 8:30.
The Bills game will be on ESPN and the Vikings-Eagles will be on ABC which doesn’t make much sense seeing as the Bills-Titans game - with its recent history not to mention the viability of both teams - would seem more worthy of the ABC audience.
There again, it might be the whole small-market thing which hampers both Buffalo and Nashville and thus the placement on ESPN.
The Bills and Titans have played in Tennessee in back-to-back seasons during prime-time. In 2020 the game was moved to a Tuesday night because of the Titans’ COVID-19 issues. Tennessee blew out Buffalo 42-16.
Then last year, the Titans squeezed out a thrilling Monday night 34-31 victory when they stopped Josh Allen on a fourth-down play from the 2-yard-line in the final seconds.
The league is releasing the 2022 schedule in bits and pieces this week leading up to the grand full-schedule announcement Thursday night at 8 p.m. on NFL Network.
An email that was sent by the Bills alluded to the fact that the NFL will be announcing each team’s home opener at 6 p.m. that night. What’s interesting is that the Bills did not refer to the Titans game as their home opener like the Eagles did in announcing their matchup with the Vikings.
Thus, perhaps we can assume that the Bills will also be at home in Week 1.
Tickets for the home opener only - whether it’s Week 1 or Week 2 - will go on sale immediately after the 6 p.m. announcement. Fans can go to the Bills website and order, but the team is making it clear that those who are registered Bills mobile app users will have a greater selection of tickets available to them.
And keep in mind, with a lofty season ticket base, there are not a lot of individual game tickets available, so registering for the mobile app might be a good idea.
A link and promo code to access the tickets on sale will be available in the app. No in-person or phone orders will be taken. All tickets must be purchased online with a maximum of six per game, per account.
When the full schedule is released at 8 p.m., tickets for all the games will go on sale.
If the Bills are indeed playing at home in Week 1, that takes them out of the running to be defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles’ opponent in the NFL opening night game Thursday, Sept. 8.
That had been hotly speculated, especially after ex-Rams edge rusher Von Miller signed as a free agent with the Bills, though also because both teams will be Super Bowl contenders this season and it makes for a juicy game.
If the Bills are home for the first two games, that means they will have only six home games over the final 16 weeks of the season, with a bye mixed in.
With the advent of the 17-game schedule, the Bills and all AFC teams played nine home games and eight away in 2021. This year, the NFC gets the extra game so this means two of the eight Bills’ home games will be burned by Sept. 19.
That could present some difficulty at the end of the season if the Bills are on the road trying to lock up the AFC East division title or perhaps home-field advantage for the playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
Think back to last year and how comforting it was that the last two games against the Falcons and Jets, which Buffalo needed to win to clinch the division, were at Highmark Stadium.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills schedule 2022: Monday night matchup vs Titans in Week 2
