Maybe it was a last round of Christmas parties, maybe it was people watching the LA Lakers and Golden State Warriors game’s jersey retirement ceremony for Kobe Bryant but whatever it was, a lot less eyeballs were on last night.

Clearly with their eyes on getting that playoff berth, defending NFC champs the Atlanta Falcons ripped into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a 24-21 victory in a stadium scattered with empty seats. Now well positioned to keep that crown and move towards even bigger games if they can win at least one of their up-coming two regular season match-ups, the Week 15 win for the Peach State team were in a lucky spot against the injury plagued Florida boys.

Not so much the lucky spot for the NFL and ESPN on MNF last night.

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Snaring a 6.5 result in metered market ratings, Monday’s match-up is the third lowest MNF this ratings challenged and controversy entangled season. Taking a hard drop of 24% in the early metrics from last week’s Miami Dolphins win over the New England Patriots, the result was still ahead of the all-time low this season of the grinding November 27 battle between the eventually victorious Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans. Like last night, that MNF low saw two regionally popular teams on the cable field so to speak, often not a winning combo for the league or the Disney run outlet.

Week 15 to Week 15, last night’s MNF took a tumble of 19% in MM results from the comparable Carolina Panthers 26-15 victory over the Washington Redskin on December 19, 2016.

Topping the night as usual and as last night’s game will surely too, the December 11, 2017 MNF went on to deliver a 3.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 11.7 million viewers. That December 19, 2016 gridiron face-off between the now for sale Panthers and the DC team pulled in a 3.6 rating in the key demo and 11.2 million sets of eyeballs.

As for the highlight of last night’s MNF …well, that’s debatable isn’t it? What is for sure though is that last night’s game peaked with a 7.6 metered market rating in the 9:30 – 9:45 PM ET slot.