That Indianapolis Colts-New England Patriots matchup that looked so attractive during the preseason is losing its prime-time television slot.
With the Colts winless and Peyton Manning-less, the NFL already has decided to move the Dec. 4 game off "Sunday Night Football" under its flexible scheduling policy. The league will decide on a replacement by Nov. 22. The NFL said Tuesday that the game at New England now would be shown at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.
The critical NFC East matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants on Nov. 20 will remain on Sunday night on NBC. The Tennessee Titans-Atlanta Falcons game that day will move from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET on CBS.
The NFL can use flexible scheduling starting in Week 10 to ensure meaningful matchups in high-profile TV time slots. Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time.
Flexible scheduling isn't applied to games airing on Thursday, Saturday or Monday nights.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
