Too soon for division play

I have always wondered who comes up with the NFL schedule and what their thinking is? It seems to me, an obvious outside obsserver since I know as much about schedule making as I know about swing dancing, that the league would want to save their big-time divisional matchups for late in the year. The Patriots going to New York to play the Jets might be interesting now, but play that game in mid-November, and it becomes fascinating. By that time, contenders have distanced themselves from the also-rans, which makes matchups between teams fighting for division crowns even more important.

But apparently, Mr. Schedule Maker thinks otherwise. In the first two weeks of the season, we’ve seen Giants-Redskins, Jaguars-Titans, Bucs-Saints, Vikings-Packers, Steelers-Browns, Eagles-Cowboys, and the aforementioned Patriots-Jets. Denver went to Oakland last week, and then this week, the Broncos host San Diego while the Raiders travel to Kansas City; that’s a third of those teams’ AFC West games within the first 14 days of the season. Same goes for the Packers, who played Minnesota in week one and goes to Detroit this Sunday, and the Bucs, who will have faced the Saints and Falcons by the time the sun goes down Sunday evening.

Then there are teams like the Bears, who don’t play an NFC North opponent until October 5 when they go to Detroit. Their first home game against a division rival is two weeks later when the Vikings come to town. As I mentioned earlier, I prefer this, because those games are more important than the matchups with the Panthers and Bucs and Eagles and all the other non-North opponents. If the Bears can build up a nice record before division play begins, they might be able to go on a nice run during the tough stretch of their season.

On to the week two games, with my picks in bold

New Orleans at Washington

Chicago at Carolina

Green Bay at Detroit

Buffalo at Jacksonville

Oakland at Kansas City

New York Giants at St. Louis

Indianapolis at Minnesota

Tennessee at Cincinnati

San Francisco at Seattle

Atlanta at Tampa Bay

San Diego at Denver

Baltimore at Houston

New England at New York Jets

Miami at Arizona

Pittsburgh at Cleveland

Philadelphia at Dallas


Last week: 8-8
Season to date: 8-8