Which NFL teams are playing on Saturday, Dec. 23?

The Christmas holiday this weekend has altered the NFL schedule a bit as NBC will produce a pair of games on Saturday. Which four teams will be playing?
Minnesota Vikings v Cincinnati Bengals
Minnesota Vikings v Cincinnati Bengals / Jeff Dean/GettyImages
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The NFL schedule certainly gets a bit spread out around the holidays, especially when Christmas falls on a weekend. This year sees Christmas Day fall on a Monday, meaning the NFL's regular Sunday schedule will be played on Christmas Eve and two extra games will air on Saturday, Dec. 23.

This bit of scheduling is a followup to the triple-header NFL Network aired last week, which saw three interesting games with a ton of meaning to the playoff picture. Two games are on tap for this Saturday and three AFC wild card contenders will be looking to pick up big wins.

Which NFL Teams Are Playing On Saturday In Week 16?

Saturday's NFL action kicks off on NBC at 4:30 p.m. ET as the 8-6 Cincinnati Bengals hit the road to take on the 7-7 Pittsburgh Steelers. Both teams are still alive in the AFC Wild Card hunt, but Cincinnati is fresh off a wild overtime win against the Minnesota Vikings that propelled them into the No. 6 seed in the conference.

Things are more dire in Pittsburgh as the Steelers lost their third consecutive game on Saturday, falling 30-13 to the Indianapolis Colts to cost themselves a critical tiebreaker in the AFC. Head coach Mike Tomlin also benched Mitch Trubisky during that game, turning the offense over to Mason Rudolph for as long as Kenny Pickett remains sidelined with an ankle injury.

This will be the second meeting of the season between the two clubs after Pittsburgh won 16-10 at Cincinnati in Week 12. That contest was the Bengals' first without quarterback Joe Burrow and they will be looking for revenge now that Jake Browning has found a groove over the past few weeks.

The night game kicks off at 8:00 p.m. ET exclusively on Peacock as the 8-6 Buffalo Bills head to SoFi Stadium to take on the 5-9 Los Angeles Chargers. The Bills appear to have salvaged their season with two consecutive wins against the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, putting themselves back in the Wild Card hunt, although a poor conference record has them on the outside looking in at the moment.

The Chargers are mathematically alive for the postseason but can be eliminated with a loss in this game. Quarterback Justin Herbert remains out for Los Angeles, which fired both head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco after they were embarrassed 63-21 on Thursday Night Football in Week 15.

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