Thursday Night Football Breeding Blowout Wins and Embarrassing Losses

After watching the New York Giants slaughter Washington 45-14, it's time to cancel Thursday Night Football. You heard me. Take the rest of the schedule slated to appear on CBS and just get rid of it.

The NFL's decision to make fans watch 16 games of this nonsense has already backfired. Through three weeks of the season, we've seen nothing but sloppy play and blowouts take over divisional matchups that are usually compelling.

How bad has it been? Bleacher Report's Tyler Conway tweeted that of all three games played on Thursdays this season, the closest one was decided by 20 points—the Baltimore Ravens' 26-6 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2.

The NFL's decision to shove these games down our throats feels like nothing more than a strategic marketing move to take advantage of the league's enormous popularity.

The product is bad. We can't really get around that. Think about this: When players get off the field on Sundays, they have just three days to prepare, practice and get ready for the week ahead. Despite having some of the best athletes in the world, there's no way that is enough time for these guys to prepare, yet alone implement a proper game plan.

It's foolish to think the hierarchy that runs the league will ever pull the plug on this experiment. The cash that comes along with it is far too lucrative. John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reported that this year, CBS paid the NFL $275 million for the rights to broadcast all of its Thursday night games.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

You won't hear this comparison often, but the NFL embraced their inner Wu-Tang Clan when they decided to expand the Thursday Night Football brand. It was a real "cash rules everything around me" moment for the league.

We know that short weeks have diluted the product. But the inclusion of average teams has made things even worse. There's no reason why with all of the NFL's scheduling power that we have to see teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars during the workweek.

Every game played on a Thursday should be big. Out of all the battles scheduled to broach the airwaves in 2014, you could argue only four realistically have a shot to be great—the New York Jets vs. New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers vs. Denver Broncos, New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers and Chargers vs. San Francisco 49ers.

Next year, if the NFL wants to serve us a lukewarm dish of dreary, haphazard football, at least make it mandatory that the best teams take center stage.

The main concern with producing a product that is so lopsided comes down to viewership. While the NFL's ratings remain strong, repeated blowouts will eventually drive viewers away. Just last week, Michael O'Connell of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that during the Atlanta Falcons' 56-14 win over the Buccaneers, initial ratings were "down 40 percent" compared to the prior week.

Can the NFL take the steps needed to remedy the situation and turn these games into a watchable product? Doubtful. But an important first step is going to be putting the best teams on the field, while the less fortunate ones are granted a full week of preparation.

Despite that, until the money stops pouring in, they will never bring this spectacle to an end. For now, fans just have to hope that their team comes out on the winning side of this shambolic thing we call Thursday Night Football.

Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information come courtesy of ESPN.com.