GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers will open the exhibition season at home on "Monday Night Football'' — just as they will do for the regular season less than a month later — then head west for their two preseason road games.
The Packers learned Thursday they'll open preseason play Aug. 11 at home against the Cincinnati Bengals in the annual Bishop's Charities game, which will kick off at 7 p.m. and air nationally on ESPN.
The Packers begin playing for keeps four weeks later, opening with the Minnesota Vikings at Lambeau on "MNF'' on Sept. 8.
After playing host to the Bengals, the Packers' next two exhibition games will be on the road — at the San Francisco 49ers and at the Denver Broncos. The exact dates and kickoff times of those games have yet to be announced.
The Packers then close the preseason at home against their favorite exhibition opponent, the Tennessee Titans, in the annual Midwest Shrine game. The date and time of that game hasn't been set yet, either. This marks the seventh straight year that the Titans and Packers have met in their preseason finale.
The Packers haven't played the 49ers in the preseason since 1975 and haven't faced Denver in exhibition play since 2001.
After the opener against the Bengals, the final three exhibitions will be broadcast on the Packers' nine-station state network, which includes WKOW (Ch. 27) in Madison.
The league was set to announce its entire regular-season schedule Thursday, but the date was pushed back. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said during the NFL meetings that he expected the full regular-season slate to be announced in the next two weeks.