Vikings game against Packers on Sunday flexed to 3:25 p.m. kickoff

The Vikings and Packers were scheduled to play two noon games against each other this season. It would have been just the third time in 28 years the longtime rivals hadn’t played a game in front of a national audience.

Thanks to the Vikings’ surprising 13-win season, they’ll close their regular-season home schedule on national TV against their biggest rivals, after all.

The NFL moved the Vikings-Packers game to a 3:25 p.m. kickoff Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium. The game will still be televised on Fox, but had been scheduled for a noon kickoff. Instead, it will replace Cowboys-Eagles as Fox’s national game of the week.

The Vikings beat Seattle 27-24 on Sunday.

Since the Vikings’ Sept. 29 win over the Packers was broadcast on CBS, this week’s game could not move to Sunday night; even though the NFL has loosened its broadcast rules to allow CBS to broadcast NFC matchups, the league’s regulations say Fox must get at least one matchup between NFC division rivals each season.

The most exposure the Vikings-Packers game could get, then, was a move to 3:25 on Sunday.

It comes as the Vikings seek a 14-win season for the first time since 1998 while trying to sweep their division rivals for the first time since 2017. The 10-4 Packers play the Saints on Monday night at Lambeau Field.

Minnesota’s Week 18 game in Detroit, which could decide the NFC North title and the No. 1 seed in the conference playoffs, could be a strong candidate to move to Sunday night, as the NFL reserves the best matchup of the regular season’s final week for NBC.

The first game between the Vikings and Packers this season was Sept. 29 at Lambeau Field, won by the Vikings 31-29. Sam Darnold threw for three touchdowns, and the Vikings had four takeaways.