—This is a week of waiting for NFL fans. The Eagles and Chiefs, the top two seeds at 8-1 and 7-2, have byes this weekend and then meet in a Super Bowl rematch next week. The game will be played Monday night in Kansas City. The early line has the Eagles favored by a point and a half.
—The Ravens can go to 8-2 and take a half game lead over the Chiefs in the AFC battle for the top AFC seed by beating the Browns. The Ravens are on a four game winning streak and are favored by six points. The Ravens have a two game lead in the division since the Browns, Steelers and Bengals are all at 5-3 and currently are the three AFC wild card teams. The Steelers are three point favorites over the Packers and the Bengals are 6.5 point favorites over the Texans.
—The feature game is San Francisco, which has lost three in a row, at Jacksonville, which has won five in a row. Both had byes last week and Jacksonville leads the AFC South at 6-2 while the 49ers are tied for first place at 5-3 in NFC West. San Francisco is a three-point favorite on the road because they were shorthanded with injuries during the losing streak and now Deebo Samuels and probably Trent Williams should be back and Christian McCaffrey figures to be in top form. And Brock Purdy was probably helped by the bye week because the 49ers didn’t give a week off after he suffered a concussion. Unfortunately, the NFL decided not to flex the game to prime time and it will be played at 1 p.m. or 10 a.m. San Francisco time.
—The NFL doesn’t have one good attraction with its four national games. The Thursday nightgame is Carolina at Chicago with the Colts at New England in the 930 a.m. Sunday morninggame from Germany, followed by the Jets at Las Vegas Sunday night and the Broncos at the Bills Monday night. And the Sunday afternoon doubleheader game is the Giants at Dallas. Not a good weekend for ratings. The NFL doesn’t have enough good games to fill its prime time slots
—The 6-2 Lions, with a two-game lead in the NFC North, can move to within one game of the 8-1 Eagles in the battle for the top seed if they beat the 4-4 Chargers. Every other NFC team has at least three losses and the 5-4 Saints, who play at Minnesota, can stay on top the NFC South with a victory.