2013 NFL Schedule and Rundown

The 2013 NFL schedule is out says Joe Brackets:

I’m surprised they didn’t give us any teasers before tonight’s official release, but we kind of got one this afternoon when it was leaked that the opener will be Ravens at Broncos. Once they determined that Baltimore wouldn’t be able to open at home, you figured that one might end up being the selection, although I still had a feeling Broncos at Giants was going to be the Sunday night game so NBC could have Peyton vs. Eli. But Denver can’t play all of its games in primetime, so I guess they figured it’d be OK to give CBS that one for its first doubleheader game of the season. Here are my thoughts on the schedule…

Week 1: The opener’s not a surprise, and if Baltimore had to open on the road, they couldn’t have picked a better matchup for the Ravens than a playoff rematch with the Broncos. Falcons-Saints in Week 1 could be interesting, but my favorite Sunday afternoon matchup is Packers-49ers. They, of course, met in Week 1 last year, and the 49ers won in Green Bay to kick start their run to the Super Bowl. NBC loves Giants-Cowboys. I knew one of their two games would end up on Sunday night. The Monday night doubleheader is great. You knew Washington was probably going to end up in it, and I love Houston-San Diego as the late game. There are only so many options when that second game pretty much has to be on the West Coast.

Week 2: They’re getting Jets-Patriots out of the way as the first NFL Network game. Peyton and Eli, meanwhile, instead of playing on a Sunday night (I’m still kind of shocked they’re not), are the national doubleheader game on CBS. One of the early games is the Ravens’ home opener. Against Cleveland. I figured the Ravens would get a Monday night home game in Week 2 to make up for the road game in Week 1. Instead it’s two division rivals playing on Monday night, as the Bengals host the Steelers. The Sunday night game is 49ers at Seahawks. We all remember when they played each other on a Sunday night in Seattle late in the season last year.

Week 3: How do you bring interest into an otherwise really crappy Week 3 matchup between a bad Chiefs team and a bad Eagles team? You put it on NFL Network on Thursday night. Oh yeah, it’s also Chiefs Coach Andy Reid’s return to Philadelphia. Well done, NFL. The Chiefs were only getting the one nationally-televsied game, and this one had to be it. The Colts visit the 49ers, meaning Andrew Luck takes on his college coach Jim Harbaugh. I like the Bears-Steelers matchup in Sunday night, but why is Raiders-Broncos the Monday night game? No issue with seeing Peyton on national TV, but the Raiders aren’t good and I don’t know why the NFL insists on shoving them down our throats.

Week 4: 49ers at Rams on Thursday night. Nothing special there. Steelers vs. Vikings in London. It’s the first of two London games this season. Great Sunday night game between the Patriots and Falcons. They’re both going to enter the season on the shortlist of Super Bowl favorites, and this should be a great early-season test. The Dolphins play the Saints on Monday night. New Orleans is probably going to be high-flying again with Sean Payton back, and they love Monday night games in the Dome.

Week 5: Bills at Browns on Thursday night. When the league makes a Thursday night TV package and makes it so that every team plays in one, sometimes we get games like this on national TV. Best games of the week are probably Saints-Bears and Broncos-Cowboys (why isn’t that one on Thanksgiving?). Texans-49ers on Sunday night should be really fun. Jets-Falcons on Monday night probably won’t be.

Week 6: Odd that there are only two byes, but that means we’ve got a bunch of great matchups, starting with Giants-Bears on Thursday night. They probably did that to make up for Bills-Browns. We’ve also got Packers-Ravens and Saints-Patriots games during the afternoon and Redskins-Cowboys on Sunday night. And the Chargers get more Monday night love, playing their second home Monday night game against the Colts.

Week 7: Let’s get right down to business. There’s only one Week 7 game that matters. Broncos at Colts. Peyton’s return to Indianapolis. Of course it’s on Sunday night. Was there any doubt? Both the Giants and Jets are home, with the Jets playing the Patriots on Sunday and the Giants playing the Vikings on Monday night. Decent Thursday night game between the other two NFC West teams (Seattle at Arizona), and a couple good ones in the afternoon with Chicago at Washington and, especially, Baltimore at Pittsburgh. Again only two byes, weird.

Week 8: London Take II is the 49ers against Great Britain’s very own Jacksonville Jaguars. The NFC South Thursday night game between Carolina and Tampa Bay should actually be pretty fun with all the offense those two teams play. RGIII visits Peyton in the doubleheader game, while the Sunday night game is one of the staples: Packers-Vikings. The NFL must really think the Rams are going to be good. They host the Seahawks on Monday night in their second primetime home division game.

Week 9: We hit the halfway point with Jeff Fisher taking on his former team for the first time. The Bears-Packers rivalry is renewed on Monday night in Lambeau, but the other good games are Sunday afternoon. Vikings at Cowboys, Saints at Jets and Steelers at Patriots. Thursday night is Bengals at Dolphins. Sunday night is Colts at Texans, which is probably based mostly on the fact that it’s a division game between two playoff teams from last season.

Week 10: Another case of the best game of the week being the Thursday nighter. RGIII and the Redskins at Adrian Peterson and the Vikings. A lot of the Sunday afternoon games are yawners except the Seahawks-Falcons playoff rematch. Cowboys-Saints is a fun Sunday night matchup. I have no idea why Dolphins-Bucs is on Monday night, though.

Week 11: Colts at Titans is OK on Thursday night. Not great. But not Bills-Browns, either. Ravens-Bears is a fun one in the early window, but FOX has great doubleheader games in Vikings-Seahawks and 49ers-Saints. Best game of the week, though? Packers at Giants on Sunday night. It’s always a great matchup when those two get together. Monday night is a Super Bowl XXXVIII rematch 10 years later.

Week 12: The Saints-Falcons rematch is an NFL Network game and the Cowboys-Giants rematch is an exclusive doubleheader late game (provided NBC doesn’t steal it away). I don’t see that one getting flexed into Sunday night, though. That’s because the Sunday night game is Broncos vs. Patriots. The Manning-Brady rivalry is renewed, with Peyton wearing orange for the first time. The Monday night game is good, too. The Redskins travel cross-country to take on the 49ers. The second Vikings-Packers game is in Week 12, too. So is the Grey Cup.

Week 13: It’s the Cowboys year to play the CBS Thanksgiving game, and the two AFC teams they play at home this year are Denver and Oakland. One has Peyton Manning. One sucks. So why are the Raiders playing Dallas on Thanksgiving and not the Broncos? I thought that was a given. Just like the other two Thanksgiving games. The Lions play the Packers on Thanksgiving a lot, and when the Ravens found out they couldn’t open at home, you figured that they’d get to host the Thanksgiving night game instead Against the archrival Steelers no less. Sunday afternoon gives us Patriots-Texans, while Giants-Redskins (Sunday) and Saints-Seahawks (Monday) are the two primetime games. The Bills also play their Toronto game in Week 12, against the Falcons.

Week 14: NFL Network games return after a week off with an AFC South showdown between the Texans and Jaguars. Vikings-Ravens, Seahawks-49ers and Giants-Chargers are highlights of the Sunday afternoon session. Sunday night could be a very important game for playoff positioning as the season enters the final month. The Packers host the Falcons, and you’ve gotta figure they’re both going to be in the race in the NFC. I was hoping the NFL would make Cowboys-Bears either a Sunday or Monday night game, and I got my wish.

Week 15: Another good one in the Thursday night finale: San Diego at Denver. (This might be why the Broncos aren’t playing on Thanksgiving.) Seahawks-Giants is a 1:00 game, which I find interesting. So is Redskins-Falcons. Either one of those could easily be a doubleheader game, although the Packers and Cowboys have that honor exclusively (not that that’s a bad thing). The Bengals and Steelers get a Sunday night game after playing on a Monday night in Week 2, although I think that one’s a candidate to get flexed out. We get the Super Bowl champs on Monday night in Detroit.

Week 16: The second-to-last week of the season brings with it all sorts of good games. Cowboys at Redskins (will the NFC East be at stake?), Broncos at Texans (will this one be for playoff seeding?), Steelers at Packers (their first meeting since the Super Bowl). And that’s just in the afternoon. On Sunday night, it’s an AFC Championship Game rematch between the Patriots and the Ravens. Not to be outdone, there’s an NFC Championship Game rematch in the final Monday night game of the year: Atlanta at San Francisco. As if it wasn’t going to be already, I think these matchups will make Week 16 especially fun.

Week 17: Once again, it’s nothing but division games to end the season. My early candidates for the Sunday night game are Packers-Bears at Soldier Field and Redskins-Giants at the Meadowlands. I’ll also give Rams-Seahawks an outside shot. They, of course, played the Sunday night finale a couple years ago, when Seattle won the NFC West at 7-9. Ravens-Bengals could be for a playoff spot (or two). Same thing with Texans-Titans. Eagles-Cowboys is always fun, especially late in the season, and the Bills and Patriots end the season against each other in Foxboro after starting it against each other in Buffalo. They also clearly have no problem with the Giants and Jets or Raiders and 49ers playing at the same time anymore, since Jets-Dolphins and Redskins-Giants are both listed as 1:00 starts, and same thing with Broncos-Raiders and 49ers-Cardinals, which both have to be late starts unless one becomes the Sunday night game. (Yet they still make it a point to not do it during the first 16 weeks.)