Packers-49ers Week 12 game flexed back to Sunday Night Football

The NFL’s schedule-makers are taking notice of the Green Bay Packers’ hot first half, and the team is being rewarded with more eyes on their product and more prominent time slots. On Tuesday afternoon, the NFL announced that the Packers’ upcoming game with the San Francisco 49ers in week 12 will be moved back to Sunday Night Football from the late afternoon time slot.

The game was originally scheduled to kick off at 1:25 PM Pacific time (3:25 PM Central), but it will swap into prime time. The contest will now kick off at 5:20 PM local (7:20 Central), taking the place of the originally-scheduled SNF game, which was the Seahawks-Eagles matchup. That game now moves back to the early afternoon block at 1:00 PM Eastern instead.

Packers-49ers was originally scheduled at the same time as the Dallas Cowboys vs. New England Patriots matchup, with both games on FOX. However, the combined 16-3 records of the Packers and Niners — likely with the top seed in the NFC on the line — was justifiably more appealing than the Seattle-Philadelphia game, which features two teams in second place in their divisions.

This game will be the second in three weeks and the second consecutive game on the Packers’ schedule that has been moved out of its original time slot. The week 10 game against the Carolina Panthers was originally a 12:00 Noon Central Time start, but was pushed back to 3:25 PM.

The two teams last played in 2018, also in prime time. That game was on Monday Night Football, however, and 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was injured and out of the contest. The Packers won 33-30 in comeback fashion after being down 30-23 with two minutes left in the game.