Packers-Falcons Week 14 Game Flexed Out of Prime Time

Last week's game between the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday Night Football and televised by NBC, but was flexed back to an afternoon start to make way for a more appealing national matchup, the Chiefs and Broncos. Tonight during halftime of the Broncos-Patriots game, NBC announced that the Packers will be flexed out of their one remaining prime time game of the 2013 schedule.

The Week 14 game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, December 8th has been moved up and replaced with a playoff-caliber matchup between the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints. Green Bay's game will instead kick off at noon Central time and will be televised on FOX, the NFL announced.

This makes sense, as the 5-5-1 Packers hosting a 2-9 Falcons team shouldn't really appeal to a national audience. Instead, a matchup between a 9-2 Saints team hosting an 8-3 Panthers team with divisional and playoff implications will be much more likely to draw eyeballs to NBC, and the league recognized that.

Enjoy the game on Thanksgiving against Detroit, folks, because it looks like that might be the last nationally-televised game the Packers get the rest of this year. Hopefully Aaron Rodgers will be able to return for this game, and that a kickoff of a few hours earlier won't affect his availability.