NFL games on TV: Kickoffs at the 19th hole

CBS won’t carry a game in its 1 p.m. window. The final round of the Masters is expected to end by 2:45 p.m., leaving room if needed for playoff holes and the post-tournament ceremony. Since Jim Nantz will broadcast golf, his NFL partner, Tony Romo, will get the weekend off.

This week’s byes: Chiefs, Cowboys, Falcons and Jets.

In another oddity, there’s no such thing as home-field advantage this season, with road teams holding a 68-65-1 record entering Sunday. Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, no season has ended with the home teams having a collective record under .500.

Tom Brady needs a rebound in the Buccaneers-Panthers game. The Bucs’ offensive line was a weakness coming into the season, and the Saints, in a 38-3 embarrassment Sunday night, showed how it could be a liability for a 43-year-old quarterback who does not like to be harassed. The Bucs had eight rushing yards on only five carries, a dubious NFL record. Two losses to the Saints in the NFC South are bad; tacking on a division loss to the Panthers would be worse. Carolina’s hopes of having star running back Christian McCaffrey on the field were dashed midweek: After missing six games with a high-ankle sprain, he suffered a shoulder injury in last week’s loss to the Chiefs and won’t play Sunday. …

There’s an important NFC East game, with the Eagles and Giants facing off in New Jersey. A win would put Philadelphia in the driver’s seat — okay, ahead — in the division and even its record at 4-4-1.

This is where things get interesting.

The Steelers, the NFL’s last undefeated team, got a jolt Tuesday with the news that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had come into close contact with someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus. He went into five days of quarantine under NFL protocols but was activated Saturday, making him eligible to play against the visiting Bengals. That freed everyone to fret about the 38-year-old quarterback’s greater concern: He injured not just one but both knees in last week’s game against the Cowboys. Roethlisberger may be smarting, but he has played through far worse. …

Tua Tagovailoa vs. Justin Herbert: This rookie matchup gets your heart racing a little, doesn’t it? For the surging Dolphins, Tagovailoa showed dramatic improvement in his second start last week, passing for 248 yards and two touchdowns in a duel with the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray that was one of the best games of the year. Herbert has had a stellar rookie season as well, but the Chargers may be the most hard-luck team in recent years. They nearly had touchdowns on the final two plays of last week’s loss to the Raiders, with the second painfully, though correctly, overturned on review. All six of their losses have been within one score, with a four-point average margin of defeat. They are 3-15 in one-score games since the start of 2019. “Right now, we’ve been kicked in the guts six times,” Coach Anthony Lynn said. “That’s six times too many for me.” The Chargers may have found a quarterback, but they’re likely to lose a coach. …

Murray is becoming must-watch TV, even though he and the Cardinals came up short against the Dolphins. He passed for 283 yards and three touchdowns against Miami and ran for 106 yards and another score — his eighth rushing touchdown of the season. Two weeks ago, Murray got the better of Russell Wilson and the Seahawks in a 37-34 overtime win. The Bills, riding a three-game winning streak in which they had 13 sacks and forced seven turnovers, present a defensive challenge. And Josh Allen is no slouch. He has five 300-yard passing games this season, one more than Buffalo had from 2013 to 2019 combined. The Bills are atop the AFC East, leading the Dolphins by two games and trying to win their first division title since 1995.

After a full day of golf and a busy late-afternoon NFL slate, it’s not clear what the appetite will be for a Ravens-Patriots clash in prime time, let alone one that has dimmed considerably with New England’s decline. The Patriots are 3-5 after squeaking out a Monday night victory over the winless Jets. The Patriots scored the final 13 points and won, 30-27, with Nick Folk kicking three field goals (including the 51-yard game-winner with no time left). Cam Newton was shaky at times but scored twice on the ground and completed 27 of 35 passes for 274 yards.

The Ravens bounced back from a narrow loss to Pittsburgh by beating the Colts last week in Indianapolis, reestablishing themselves as AFC title contenders. They had just 266 yards against the Colts, but Lamar Jackson’s nine-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter gave them at least 20 points for the 31st consecutive game, breaking the record of 30 that the Ravens had shared with the Broncos (who accomplished the feat over the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons). The Ravens’ streak began in Jackson’s first game as their starting quarterback.