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Bengals Versus Browns Flexed Over To FOX From CBS

The NFL "cross-flexed" the second go-round of the Bengals and Browns. It will still be a 1PM ET kickoff, but the channel carrier will be FOX, not CBS.

By Anthony Cosenza
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

(Editor's Note: We already published something on this a few days ago, but it has since been further confirmed by the NFL and other sources, hence the re-hashing of the story.)

As the calendar turns to December and the home stretch of the NFL season is upon us, the Cincinnati Bengals enter a daunting four-game stretch. Though the Queen City Cats are sitting atop the AFC North at 8-3-1, this month will decide their postseason fate, especially since three of those four remaining games are against divisional opponents. The Steelers and the Browns are both 7-5 and pose a difficult task for a team looking to surge into the playoffs.

The NFL usually does a pretty solid job of putting the "upper tier" games in a bigger spotlight, as they come up later in the season. Sometimes early games are flexed to the primetime night slots, while others are just pushed up the totem pole so that more of Joe Public can see a marquee match-up. Other times, a game is flexed to a different network to serve this purpose.

According to sources, it sounds like the Week 15 rematch between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals will be swapped over to FOX from CBS. Joe Reedy, formerly of The Cincinnati Enquirer and currently with FOX Sports Ohio (so, like, he'd probably know, right?) informed both fan bases on Twitter:

The change has also been made to the league schedule over at NFL.com. There are some other intriguing match-ups in the AFC at the same time, including the Dolphins battling the Patriots and the Colts hosting the Texans. As it stood, FOX only had the Packers and Bills game as one that had major playoff implications on their early slate.

Cincinnati hosted Cleveland four weeks ago and were beaten soundly 24-3. A win for either team will go a long way toward a playoff push and it could feature a different look for the Browns, who are deciding between Johnny Manziel and Brian Hoyer as their quarterback.

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