The Cincinnati Bengals confirmed Thursday that Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills will not be available on local television because it has not sold out.
It is the first Bengals home game in seven seasons to be blacked out, a string of 57 regular-season and playoff games that extends back to Nov. 9, 2003.
"Sales have been slow this week and not a lot of progress has been made. The pace has slowed considerably," ticket manager Andrew Brown told the *Cincinnati Enquirer*. "There's not a lot of momentum right now to move tickets in bulk."
And that might not be the end of the bad news for Bengals fans.
Brown said the only remaining realistic sell-out is the Dec. 5 game against the defending champion New Orleans Saints. The Bengals also play host to the Cleveland Browns on Dec. 19, a matchup that has sold out every year since Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000, and the San Diego Chargers on Dec. 26.
Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Jaguars have been granted a 24-hour extension to the NFL blackout deadline.
The Jaguars have until 1 p.m. ET Friday to sell enough tickets for the blackout to be lifted and Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns to be televised locally and in secondary markets. The club needs to sell about 3,000 non-premium tickets to avoid a blackout.
Jacksonville, which blacked out nine of 10 home games last season, sold enough tickets to its first five home games to avoid any blackouts.
Leaguewide, there have been 25 percent more blackouts than a season ago. Through 10 weeks, 15 games have been blacked out. A year ago there were 12 blackouts at this point.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
