There is just one scheduled primetime game inside Lucas Oil Stadium for the upcoming 2025 NFL regular season. The Indianapolis Colts will host the San Francisco 49ers in the last game of Week 16 on Monday Night Football on Dec. 22.
There is just one scheduled primetime game inside Lucas Oil Stadium for the upcoming 2025 NFL regular season. The Indianapolis Colts will host the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 22 to close Week 16 on Monday Night Football.
December’s slugfest may be viewed as an interesting chess match dueled between two brilliant minds in 49ers ninth-year head coach Kyle Shanahan against Colts head coach Shane Steichen. Both coaches can orchestrate clever play designs to create explosive offensive plays. Despite missing out on the playoffs, the 49ers produced the fourth-most total yards (6,397) of any offense in 2024. The Colts return the eighth-best rushing offense after collecting 2,331 team rushing yards last season. Indianapolis just added another dangerous weapon through the 2025 NFL Draft after selecting running back D.J. Giddens out of Kansas State in the fifth round.
Primetime at HOME. pic.twitter.com/mXbyRMHvCT
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) May 15, 2025
The Colts are 0-2 in primetime games under Steichen, who enters his third season in Indy. The AFC South rival Houston Texans conquered the Colts, 23-19, in the 2023 regular season finale to claim the divisional title and a berth in the playoffs. Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor saved his best performance for last as he led the game with a season-best 188 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on 30 carries. Gardner Minshew II commanded Indy’s iconic “run the damn ball” offensive attack downfield as the Colts breached the red zone following seven consecutive carries from Taylor. But an unfortunate dropped pass facing fourth-and-two resulted in a turnover on downs just 15 yards shy of the end zone and cost the Colts a chance to make the 2023 playoffs. Tough way for Steichen to end his first season at the helm.
Indianapolis received another shot 10 months later in last season’s Week 9 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, which was flexed to Sunday Night Football. Steichen chose to bench quarterback Anthony Richardson in favor of 39-year-old veteran Joe Flacco. The results were less than promising as the Colts’ offense never reached the end zone and got outscored by its own defense during the 21-13 road loss.
The Colts were flexed off Sunday Night Football prior to last season’s Week 11 road matchup against the New York Jets, which ultimately became Richardson’s redemption game as he trucked cornerback D.J. Reed at the goal line to score his first career game-winning touchdown.
Game Winner.
CBS pic.twitter.com/hlBHd1sjDE
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) November 17, 2024
It was easy for the Stampede Blue community (68%) to predict the Colts would be limited to just one primetime game in 2025. From the fanbase’s perspective on the state of the organization, seeing is believing. Unless the organization earns the recognition to get television networks to want to broadcast games in Indy, it will be the third consecutive season the Colts play in one standalone game.
Colts’ primetime games under Shane Steichen
- 2023: Week 18 vs Houston Texans – Saturday Night Football
- 2024: Week 9 @ Minnesota Vikings – Sunday Night Football
- 2025: Week 16 vs San Francisco 49ers – Monday Night Football
Can the rapid growth of Indianapolis sports inspire the Colts to snap the four-year playoff drought? Indianapolis will become the sports mecca in the final week of May as the Indiana Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals to set up an electric Game 3 atmosphere following the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500, which takes place five miles away on May 25. The Indiana Fever host the New York Liberty 24 hours prior to the race as Caitlin Clark, the basketball phenomenon and first overall pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft, has 41 of the 44 Fever games on national television, which is the most ever for a single team in WNBA history.