The Indianapolis Colts just lost their Week 11 prime time slot
The NFL is evidently not pleased with their choice for Sunday Night Football, because the Indianapolis Colts match-up against the New York Jets has been flexed out in favor of the Cincinnati Bengals - Los Angeles Chargers game. While the Colts were flexed into prime time for Week 9, their humiliating loss to the Minnesota Vikings evidently didn't impress league executives much.
The Chargers, currently led by Jim Harbaugh, are 5-3, and have found a good quarterback in Justin Herbert. Quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals, meanwhile, are fighting to make it into the playoffs and have won three of their last four games. This game will be more exciting for a prime time audience to see - or, at least, that is what the league believes. Both teams will have back-to-back prime time games, with the Bengals playing Thursday Night Football in Week 10, and the Chargers playing Monday Night Football in Week 12.
Both the Colts and the Jets currently have losing records.
In 2006, the NFL instituted flexible scheduling for Sunday Night Football, essentially allowing teams to earn a prime time football spot if they play well enough.
The Colts will now play the Jets in New Jersey at Met Life Stadium at 1:00pm. Two other games have dates and times yet to be determined -- their Week 17 match against the New York Giants and their Week 18 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars -- so theoretically, the Colts could end up on prime time television again. But given how all three teams have been playing, it seems unlikely.
One of the biggest issues in comparing the Colts to the Chargers and the Bengals could very well be the teams' respective quarterbacks. Both Burrow and Herbert are good QBs, whereas the Colts have a complete mess on their hands. They benched their original starter, Anthony Richardson, the youngest quarterback in the league who has started just 10 games in his NFL career, and put 39-year-old veteran Joe Flacco in his place as QB1. While Flacco has had a great career in the NFL and won games for the Colts in the past, he played abysmally in the Colts' loss to the Vikings. How many people want to watch an aging quarterback, one who can barely run, lead an offense that couldn't manage to score any points in Week 9?