With the battle for the NFC's top seed headed into Week 17, the NFL has put both contenders into the same time slot.
The league on Sunday night flexed the Panthers' regular-season finale with the Bucs from 1 p.m. to 4:25. The Cardinals and Seahawks were already scheduled to kick off at 4:25.
Carolina can lock up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a win, so if that happened during the 1 p.m. window, the Arizona game would have been anticlimactic. But because the Cardinals can steal the No. 1 seed by combining a win over the Seahawks with a Panthers loss, there's more potential for drama by playing both games at the same time.
If the Panthers and Cardinals each finish at 14-2, Arizona will earn the top seed because they'd have the better conference record (11-1 vs. 10-2).