Tuesday’s announcement of the 2008
NFL schedule was like Christmas in April.
And if you waited until the last day to file
your tax return, the 2 p.m. league-wide
release gave you another welcome reason
to procrastinate.
I pick apart a schedule from two
perspectives: the fan’s and the team’s.
Let’s take a random franchise, say, the
Washington Redskins. I, the fan, look
for a schedule ideally consisting of some
“easy” wins (nothing comes easy for
the Redskins), but also a few intriguing
opponents that might present a greater
challenge. Games like that bring in more
national attention.
Then there’s the home games factor.
Who’s coming into my team’s dojo? The
Redskins host a few teams with star power
such as New Orleans – Reggie Bush and
Drew Brees – and Pittsburgh – recent
Super Bowl champions – not to mention
the standard division rivalries. Those are
the kinds of teams I look for when I’m
deciding if I want to go to a game.
An even more avid fan has to go a
step beyond to look for road games in
close proximity. Philadelphia and the
Meadowlands are always in range, but
other than that it’s slim pickings. The ‘Skins
make their first-ever trip to Baltimore in
the regular season. After that, you’ll be
making the trek to Cincinnati to catch
the next closest road game.
Now to the team’s perspective. The
Redskins must be motivated by having
only six games this season against teams
that made the playoffs last season (and
four of those games are against division
opponents).
Pull back the curtain a little farther
though, and many other matchups are
deceptively challenging when only looking
at making the playoffs as a pass-fail indicator
of success. New Orleans, Arizona,
Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit were
all considered to be “in the mix” to make
the playoffs for the last month of 2007.
That’s another six games against quality
opponents. Do the math and it leaves
only four “duds” of a year ago: St. Louis,
Baltimore, Cincinnati and San Francisco.
The latter three are all in the last four
weeks of the schedule.
Finally, be wary of losing streaks. The
Redskins, per usual, have a midseason
stretch in which they could lose six straight
games, but it’s bookended by winnable
matchups.
The bottom line: 11-5.
What’s beautiful about the schedule is
that any crafty fan could take a glance at
it and justify why the New England will
go 0-16 or Miami 16-0 this season. It
leaves room for endless speculation. Fans’
optimism or pessimism shine through
their predictions of records.
Why would an Oakland fan look at
the schedule and pick his Raiders, who
haven’t won more than five games in a
season since 2002, to win the AFC West?
Because he thinks they can.