Bizarre NFL scheduling quirk will make Commanders just the second team in 30 years to face this rare situation

When the Commanders take the field on Sunday night, they’re going to be extremely familiar with their opponent and that’s because they’ll be playing the SAME TEAM they played the last time they were on the field: the New York Giants. 

Thanks to a bizarre scheduling quirk, Washington will be facing the same opponent in back-to-back games, marking just the second time over the past 30 years that this has happened. The Commanders played the Giants to a 20-20 tie in Week 13, had a bye in Week 14, and are now set to play the Giants again on Sunday night in Washington. 

Over the past three decades, this has only happened one other time, and that actually came last season with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns had a Week 12 game against the Ravens, before getting a bye in Week 13, and then they played Baltimore again in Week 14. As for the Ravens, they did NOT face the Browns in back-to-back games because they had to play the Steelers in Week 13, a game they lost 20-19. 

Although the Browns lost the initial meeting with the Ravens 16-10, getting a week off before playing them again ended up working wonders because they won the second meeting 24-22. 

There’s not a large enough sample size to determine if one team is getting a huge advantage in these back-to-back games, but the NFL may have to rethink its scheduling philosophy if the team that’s coming off a bye wins again this year. Not only did the Browns win after their bye, but the bye feels like a huge advantage for the Commanders, because while they were sitting at home last week, the Giants were getting beat down by the Eagles in a 48-22 loss. 

Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, there have only been a total of four instances where a team played the same team in back-to-back games. Besides the 2021 Browns and the 2022 Commanders, it also happened back in 1991 with the Seahawks and Chargers, but that situation was different, because both teams had a bye between their two games. The Seahawks beat the Chargers 20-9 in their first meeting in Week 9, and then after both teams got a bye in Week 10, the Chargers earned a 17-14 win in their Week 11 meeting. 

If the NFL is going to schedule a team to play the same opponent in back-to-back games, giving both teams a bye between the two games would seem to be the fairest way to handle things. If the Commanders destroy the Giants on Sunday night, it wouldn’t be surprising if…