Stampede Blue
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.
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.
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.
