NFL Week 11 schedule change: Colts-Packers game flexed to late afternoon

The NFL has made yet another schedule change

By John Breech

Nov 9, 2020 at 1:02 pm ET • 2 min read

It's probably safe to say that 2020 has been the busiest year ever for the NFL scheduling department. Due to COVID-19, the league has had to make plenty of scheduling changes through the first nine weeks of the season and on Monday, they decided to add one more, only this one has nothing to due with COVID.

The league has announced that the Colts home game against the Packers in Week 11 has been flexed to the late afternoon. Previously, the game was scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. ET on Nov. 22, but now, the game has been moved to 4:25 p.m. ET so it can be featured in the second slot as part of Fox's national doubleheader. The only other game in the second slot of the doubleheader window was Cowboys at Vikings and Fox likely didn't want to get left with a game that could potentially be a dud. Now, they'll have an intriguing matchup that will feature Aaron Rodgers going up against the Colts defense.

For the Colts, who had a lot of preseason hype after signing Philip Rivers, the move will keep them in the national spotlight. After only having two of their first eight games put in a national television window, they'll now have their next two games in prime slots (The 4:25 p.m. ET window on Sunday generally draws the highest TV ratings out any game played during a given week, including primetime games). Besides the Week 11 games against the Packers, the Colts will also be on national television this week when they travel to Tennessee to play the Titans on Thursday night.

Surprisingly, this will be the first time this year that either team that has been moved out of its original time slot. As we mentioned earlier, the NFL has been shifting the schedule around all year due to interruptions caused by COVID-19. There were a total of 11 teams impacted by the COVID changes through the first eight weeks, but the Packers and Colts weren't among the teams effected.

Here's a look at how Week 11 will now break down with the changes in bold.