Thursday Night Football Week 5 Ratings Up 26% From 2016's Epic Blaine Gabbert

NFL ratings are up again! This time it was week 5’s New England Patriots – Tampa Bay Buccaneers missed field goal-fest that resulted in a 26% ratings bump compared to last season’s week 5 match-up between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers. (In addition to airing on CBS and the NFL Network, the Cardinals – 49ers game was streamed on Twitter.)

Last year the week 5 game featured two 1-3 teams and two back-up quarterbacks. Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert started the game and combined for 286 yards passing. Carson Palmer missed the game with a concussion. Gabbert lost his job after completing 18 of 31 passes for 162 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions in the loss.

To say the New England Patriots, Tom Brady and Jameis Winston was a bit of an upgrade would be an understatement. We’ll just have to see if Nick Folk’s missed field goals have an adverse affect on the rest of the week’s ratings.