The Jacksonville Jaguars’ regular season finale Tennessee Titans to decide the AFC South champion will be played Saturday night.
Shortly after a Sunday Night Football game in Week 17, NBC announced that the de facto AFC South championship game has been flexed to Saturday at 8:15 p.m. ET with coverage on ESPN.
The last time the Jaguars played a primetime game on a day other than a Thursday was a Monday Night Football loss in December 2011. While it’s a big moment for Jacksonville, it isn’t exactly welcome news for Jaguars coach Doug Pederson.
“I would love to play Sunday, obviously, to have these next couple of days, but we’ll play when they ask us or tell us to play, and our guys will be ready to go,” Pederson said hours before the announcement. “If I could pick, I would pick Sunday.”
Jacksonville currently leads the division with an 8-8 record after winning five of its last six games. The Titans dropped to 7-9 on the season when their losing streak extended to six with a loss on Thursday.
If the Jaguars win, they’ll have the only winning record in the division. If the Titans win, they’d have the tiebreaker over Jacksonville thanks to a 4-2 record in AFC South play.
The winner of the game Saturday night will host either the Baltimore Ravens or Los Angeles Chargers in the wild card round of the playoffs.
