With the Baltimore Ravens continuing to have positive COVID-19 tests this week, the NFL has rescheduled their Week 12 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers twice now. That means the Ravens’ Week 13 game against the Dallas Cowboys — originally scheduled for Thursday — needed to be rescheduled as well. According to the NFL’s press release, Baltimore will now face Dallas on Monday, Dec. 7 at 5:00 p.m. ET, broadcast on FOX, NFL Network, and Amazon.
It’s been quite the calendar change for the Ravens this week. They were supposed to play the Steelers on Thanksgiving night, a rare holiday matchup for Baltimore. However, the Ravens saw several players test positive for COVID-19 between Monday and Wednesday, prompting the league to reschedule the game to Sunday afternoon in response. Unfortunately, Baltimore had more positive tests late in the week, forcing the NFL to reschedule the game once again, this time to Tuesday.
With the schedule change pushing the Ravens vs. Steelers matchup into next week, that created too short of a turnaround for Baltimore to take on Dallas on Thursday. That meant yet another schedule change, this time with Week 13’s game being pushed back as well.
While the frequent schedule changes are quite a lot to follow, the Ravens and NFL certainly aren’t out of the woods yet. Baltimore has had positive COVID-19 tests every day this week and the outbreak isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. If the Ravens continue to see players test positive over the weekend, Tuesday’s game wouldn’t be a lock to happen either.
The NFL has created a contingency plan in the event there are cancellations due to COVID-19, according to Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports. NFL owners unanimously voted for an expansion to the playoff format from 14 teams to 16 in the postseason if all meaningful games cannot be played in the regular season. That would seemingly be a last-resort scenario for the NFL but one that’s nice to have in the league’s back pocket if necessary.
