What You Missed Last Night: ‘MNF’ playoff game; KC prospect hits 39th HR; Mahomes tied

NFL teams will have even more incentive to snag the No. 1 seed in the playoffs this season.

The league on Friday announced a change to the Wild Card weekend of games.

The NFL postseason structure gives teams with the best record in both conferences a bye. The other six teams play in the opening weekend of the playoffs. Last season, that meant a tripleheader of games on Saturday and Sunday.

That will change this season. One of the six Wild Card games will move to Monday night.

The two Wild Card games on Saturday will be played at 3:35 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Central time, the three Sunday games will kick off at 12:05 p.m., 3:40 p.m., and 7:15 p.m., and the Monday game will begin at 7:15 p.m.

That might not be so fun for the teams playing on Monday, as they would have a short week of preparation before the Divisional Round games the following Saturday and Sunday.

CBS and NBC will each broadcast two Wild Card games while Fox and ESPN/ABC will each have one. The NFL hasn’t determined which network will carry the Monday night game.

No. 39 for Melendez

Royals prospect M.J. Melendez crushed his 39th homer of the season in Triple-A Omaha’s 5-2 win over Indianapolis.

“The pitcher was trying to attack. This team definitely tries to attack with the fastball,” Melendez told Storm Chasers reporter Ana Bellinghausen. “I knew I was going to get something to hit and he left it over the middle and I was able to drive it over left field.”

No player in the minor leagues has hit more home runs this season that Melendez. He has 11 in 37 games with the Storm Chasers and had 28 in 79 games with Double-A Northwest Arkansas.

Melendez, who is primarily a catcher, also has been playing third base with Omaha.

Darnold matches Mahomes

The New York Jets selected quarterback Sam Darnold with the No. 3 overall draft pick in 2018. After struggling in his three seasons with the Jets, Darnold was traded to the Panthers, and he’s helped Carolina to a 3-0 start this season.

In the Panthers’ 24-9 win over the Texans on Thursday night, Darnold threw for 304 yards. Stats by Stats said Darnold is the second quarterback in the Super Bowl era to have 250 or more passing yards in each of his team’s first three games, which all ended in victory.

The other is the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.

Trickeration

Appalachian State scored 10 fourth-quarter points and defeated Marshall 31-30 on Thursday night in Boone, North Carolina.

The game featured six lead changes and a Marshall trick play on a kickoff return.

Marshall fooled Appalachian State into thinking there would be a reverse. Instead, Rasheen Ali kept the ball and motored 97 yards for the touchdown.

The camera operator also bit on the fake: