Dolphins-49ers could get lost in the shuffle of a great Week 13 schedule

The thirteenth Sunday of the 2022 regular season features plenty of great games. Neither of these games will be seen in much of the country.

The matchup between the 8-3 Dolphins and 7-4 49ers will begin at 4:05 pm ET, with the FOX regional telecast taking over the second seat to the 4:25 pm ET game between the Chiefs and Bengals on CBS.

The 49ers-Dolphins game could be flexed, in theory Sunday Night Football. But that would have meant knocking the Cowboys out from the start.

appear on SI Media Podcast With Jimmy Traina, NBC’s Mike Tirico admitted that perhaps the better move would have been to move Dolphins-49ers to prime time.

“I think for the audience, which is what the flex should be, it should be for the home crowd, you can have good games in the prime time window,” Tirico told Traina, via . Sports Business Magazine. “I think that Miami-San Francisco game at 4:05 isn’t on a doubleheader weekend on CBS, and that Fox game isn’t going to a lot of countries, that’s the game for the football fan that they should see that Sunday night in that prime time window.’

Instead, it’s Colts-Cowboys. And the Colts were 4-5-1 when the NFL had to decide if a flex would happen. Even with Indy’s two straight losses, a Cowboys game will generate millions of viewers, as the Cowboys always do, no matter who they’re playing. Meanwhile, a Super Bowl XIX rematch featuring a great Miami offense and a great San Francisco defense, along with many other compelling storylines, will be overlooked.

It’s one of the basic realities of a weekend full of great games, from Chiefs-Bengals to Titans-Eagles to Jets-Vikings to Commanders-Giants to Dolphins-49ers. It should be a great day from start to finish, regardless of whether a potentially great game between the Dolphins and 49ers might not get the kind of platform it deserves.

Maybe, just maybe, they’ll have a rematch in February that will definitely get a much bigger audience.