Looks like all the NFC West teams have this problem. Fucking East Coasters. I like my DVR more and more…
It would be smart to have the whole team get up early all season long.
The Panthers’ schedule is brutal. Ranked 2nd toughest. The biggest concern is the Week 4 Bye. That means 13 in a row to close the season. But what can you do? You have to play them anyway. Now, if we can trade Peppers and get some draft picks I’d feel better.
Don’t worry too much. The NFL likes to schedule all the games they can during those flex weeks as 1PM ET starts. Usually 2 or 3 games get moved to later starts as they get closer.
Can they move them from 1 to 4:30? I thought they only moved them 1 game to the SNF game.
10am football does suck. Especially since I’m a sleep at dawn sort of person. Takes a lot of the enjoyment out of football season for me…
I’m not entirely clear about the process the NFL uses but the ESPN writers make comments indicating that they intentionally schedule extra games early. I think the CBA makes it easier to move a game later than it is to move it earlier so by having a max number of games scheduled early gives them max flexibility.
They do change start times for afternoon games. I think this has always been the case even before the “flex” system was in place for primetime games.
Patriots schedule looks pretty tough, at least based on last year’s records.
They’ve got a game at Mile High, which has traditionally been lousy for them, and they’ve got to travel to Indy AGAIN. They’ve got a nice mid-season bye-week, but it comes after having to play in London against the Bucs.
There is a really tough 4-game stretch that is likely to be key to their chances of success:
Sunday, Nov. 15 @ Indianapolis Colts
Sunday, Nov. 22 New York Jets
Monday, Nov. 30 @ New Orleans
Sunday, Dec. 6 @ Miami Dolphins
3/4 four road games, 2/4 division matchups, and back-to-back long travels to the southern coast on a short week. I wonder if they’ll stay down there? They’ve done that on the west coast before.
At least the season ends with Houston! 
Anecdotal, but I heard a story that that was one of June Jones’ changes when he coached at the University of Hawaii. Practice was at 10AM so when they went on a trip to the mainland there was less adjustment.
Finally get a break on the strength of schedule, but after last year’s brutal schedule led to a Super Bowl victory, you just can’t worry about that SOS stat.
One thing that always makes me curious though… every time we play the Chiefs, it’s at KC. Why is that? I’m going to go back and look at the schedules, but I’ll bet the last 10 times the Steelers played the Chiefs, 9 were in KC.
So we can pencil the Detroit Lions in for 10 wins now that they have a new logo, right?
Actually, I really like the logo. It’s surprisingly how similar it is to the old one, despite seeming to be completely fresh. That logo alone is worth 1 or 2 wins.
Close:
2006 vs Chiefs
2003 at Chiefs
2001 at Chiefs
1999 at Chiefs
1998 at Chiefs
1997 at Chiefs
1996 at Chiefs
1992 at Chiefs
1989 vs Chiefs
1988 vs Chiefs
also: 1993 playoffs at Chiefs
I so glad the league has implemented a more ordered schedule. The regular cycle of two non-division teams meeting every four years alternates the venue. I really hope they renew the concept. This article gives some more examples of the old craziness, like the Raiders not playing in Pittsburgh for 18 straight years.
Here’s some photos of the new uniforms that go with it. I’m pretty pleased with how the logo and uni’s came out. I was very nervous that they’d do something silly like the Broncos or Bucs. When I watch NFC North games I want to know that I’m watching the same teams they were watching 60 years ago. The new Lions unis look much like the old ones with minor adjustments to the numbers and trim and that’s it. The logo is almost just a higher resolution version of the original which is completely acceptable.
Now if we could just get the Vikings to dump those stupid new USFL unis with obnoxious stripes.
The new Lions logo is a good change. I always hated the old logo. It just looked like a splotch of blue or rorschach test or something.
