2011 NFL Schedule released

The Game Room
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2011 schedule

I guess this is a sign of my dwindling interest in the NFL that I didn’t even know this was coming up. The last few years I’ve waited for it like a holiday, now it caught me by surprise.

Cleveland has a weird end to the season, playing Pittsburgh and Baltimore twice each in the last 5 weeks, including travelling to Pittsburgh 4 days (Thursday night) after what will be a physically brutal match against Baltimore… Ugh.

In a surprising twist, not all primetime games are matchups between NFC East teams.

Really, there’s a pretty decent looking mix of primetime games.

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Interesting. The Packers …

Excuse me

The NFL Reigning Champion Green Bay Packers …

Pardon me again

The 13 Championships Holding Green Bay Packers have 4 primetime games, including the opener against the Saints. I can’t wait for the Monday nighter at home against the Vikings, that should be fun. And they have the Bears on Christmas night at home.

According to ESPN, the Packers have the 13th hardest schedule, while the Bears have the 23rd, the Vikings the 10th, and the Lions the 3rd. The Browns get the 19th hardest.

I know it is in large part a function of the divisions, but the Panthers have the hardest schedule, the Bills the second, and the Lions tied for 3rd, which will make it hard for those teams to improve. Meanwhile, the Ravens have the second easiest and the Steelers the 6th easiest, which will make their fans happy.

And I can’t believe I wasted time checking this out when there’s a lockout. Bastards!!

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Strange schedule for the Cardinals. 3 straight road games in the middle of the season and the 3 in row (4 of the last 5) at home. No prime time games for them this year.

If the Cards aren’t better next year, they’re going to have a very tough time selling tickets to the last few home games. The last home games are against the Seahawks, 49ers, and Browns. I could be watching a lot more early season hockey this year.

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Where’d you guys get that information?

Here’s the 2011 NFL Schedule I got:

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It’ll be a relief if it stays that way. But last year after looking over the schedule I was somewhat optimistic, but then we ended up with the #1 or #2 hardest schedule. Lots of teams surprise every year. The starting strength of schedule and ending strength of schedule can change pretty dramatically.

The Browns schedule is set up in a very tough way. It starts off fairly easy with 3 home games out of the first 4 and an early bye - the Browns have got to start 3-2 or better to have any chance of doing anything, because week 5 begins 3 out of 4 weeks of travelling across the country, and an absolutely brutal stretch of getting the best teams in the AFC in 4 of 5 of the last games.

While it’s generally nice to start easy to build some confidence, this year due to the lockout and having a new coach and a new defensive alignment and a totally new offense it also puts the team at a disadvantage over established teams. So only part of the schedule where we have a chance of starting off well will be the same part that we’re handicapped by trying to learn a new everything on a tight time table.

Yeah, it’s gonna be an ugly year.

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The first half of the Bears schedule looks pretty tough.

Falcons
at Saints
Packers
Panthers
at Lions
Vikings
at Tampa in London

The first 3 games are against maybe the 3 of the top 5 NFC teams, on the road against an improving Lions and then a long trip to London to face the surging Bucs. The Panthers should be a win and if the Vikings QB situation remains a mess it ought to be too, but all in all I’d be thrilled to exit that stretch at 4-3.

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Cool. The John v Jim Harbowl in primetime on Thanksgiving. The 49ers haven’t played on Thanksgiving since 1972.

Only five 10:00am games this year. :rolleyes:

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Couple of thoughts on the schedule in general, and then some specific thoughts about the Eagles’ schedule.

I checked ESPN and didn’t see any byes in week 10, which is a little strange. I don’t remember ever seeing a week in the middle of the bye season that was skipped before. I can’t figure out why that might be, or what I might have missed.

Some Eagles fans at some of their fan blogs are bitching about the Eagles having to play two teams that had their bye the week before (@Was in wk 6, and vs. Chi wk 9). I did some checking, and it turns out this happens to nine teams in the league. (Oak, GB, NYJ, Phi, Hou, Mia, Pit, Cle, and Ind). Another 14 teams face one team on their schedule who had a bye the week before. And nine other teams do not face a single opponent who had a bye the week before their matchup. Those lucky few are Bal, Cin, Az, SF, StL, Det, Min, Atl, and TB.

If you consider that last part interesting at all, it’s made even more so in pointing out that of all nine teams that will face two teams after their bye, all but Philly and Green Bay do so consecutively. Meaning Oak, NYJ, Hou, Mia, Pit, Cle, and Ind will all spend two straight weeks facing off against someone who just had a bye. Kinda rough!

On to the Eagles in a bit…

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The Lions get a Monday Night game? Man, last time we had one of those was 2001. We played St. Louis then. Hell, it’ll be the last prime time game for the Lions since 2005.

Excellent. A game that can’t be blacked out.

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The Eagles:

I think I go over their schedule in detail every year, and last year I predicted them going 8-8. I was a little off on some parts, exactly right on others, and they ended up being 10-6. I thought they would miss the playoffs during a “retooling” year for Kolb. I couldn’t have reasonably expected Vick to light the world on fire like he did and steal the job, though I did predict that the bitching about the McNabb trade would die almost immediately. Thanks Vick!

On to 2011 (if there is one, yadda…). I mentioned before, (somewhere on this board I think) that the Eagles are remarkably lucky this season with how the schedule breaks down. Of all the teams the Eagles play from outside the NFC East with a winning record last season, only one of four is played on the road. The Eagles get New England, the Jets, and the Bears (finally!) at home. That’s good timing.

The opening of the schedule starts out with two road games (@ StL and @ Atl), of which they can probably win both. I say that knowing Atlanta is much tougher at home, but the Eagles beat them last season with Kolb under center. A motivated Vick might be enough to overcome the road disadvantage. It’s not like Vick is unfamiliar there, and he’s still beloved there. They then immediately go home to face a Giants team likely extra inspired to get revenge for the Miracle at the New Meadowlands, so the first three are tough. I think they come out 2-1, but I wouldn’t be surprised with a 1-2 start.

Things ease up for a bit vs. SF, @ Buf, @ Was, and then with a bye before their home game against Dallas. The 49ers are improving, and Washington always plays the Eagles tough (59-28 excepted), but I think it’s reasonable they get out of there 4-0 or at least 3-1. So we’re looking at possibly 6-1 or 5-2 to start the season.

Chicago looms in week 9, which will be tough with the Bears coming off a bye, but at least it’s at home. The Eagles have played the Bears every year since 2007, and 2007 was the last time the Bears went to Philly. The ghosts of that shitty Soldier Field turf be damned.

I think the hardest stretch is weeks 11-14, and possibly including weeks 15 and 16 as well. Starting week 11 @ NYG, which is sure to be a war, even if the Eagles have played very well there in the Reid era. I’m hoping that will be an early start to the annual Giants decline over the last quarter of the season. Then New England at home, which is no picnic, and then immediately on the road, across the entire country, for a Thursday game @ Seattle. That game will not be easy with such short rest and such a hostile environment… and technically Seattle is a playoff team. Brutal. The Eagles then immediately fly all the way across the country again for a road game in Miami. Even with extra rest, that’s a pretty ridiculous trek.

They cap the season off vs. the Jets, a tough game that could easily go either way, @ Dallas which is a toss up considering how nobody knows which Dallas team will show up next season (the exceptionally talented one or the incredibly crappy one we’ve gotten so often lately). Finally home to finish the season against the Redskins, which means for the first time since 2008 the Eagles won’t close the season against the Cowboys. Hopefully the 'Skins will stink one more season so Philly can close out a playoff berth at home.

I can see a couple tough losses in there, even an inexplicable one which happens every season for no reason whatsoever, and I still come out with a 10-6 record, 9-7 maybe. And that’s before the draft and any potential moves before the season if the CBA gets finished. And the Eagles are poised to make a big move in free agency, they have the room.

I’m also definitely getting Sunday Ticket again, though this is a season where I’ll get a lot of Eagles games without it. They have three Sunday night games, one Monday night and one Thursday night game, and a game against the Cardinals, which I might get to see on TV here in Arizona. So five prime time games, which is understandable for a playoff team with the most electrifying offense in football. Here’s hoping we get football in 2011!

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It would have been interesting if the NFL had released an 18 game schedule.

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Wow, the Patriots have only one 1:00 ET game until week 14, and only four the whole season. In an alternate universe where these games actually get played, that would have been interesting.

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Carolina went 2-14 and ended up with the toughest schedule. That’s partly because 6 of their 16 games are against Tampa, Atlanta and New Orleans who all won 10 or more games.

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Getting the Winnipeg sports package are you? :eek: