What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Are the NFL schedule makers on crack? (1 Viewer)

spodog

spodog

Footballguy
I understand that Goodell has asked the schedule wizards to place an emphasis the last few seasons on a larger number of Division games clustered towards the end of the season. It's good for ratings, it's interesting for the fans, and in some cases it helps ensure teams that they are more in control of their own destiny versus having to sit with their fingers crossed hoping some game halfway across the country goes their way in order to get into the playoffs.

However, there seems to be a large number of instances this year where two teams play each other in a span of 3 weeks. I think this is a ridiculous way to schedule games. The two games against division rivals is a good format, but these two games should be seperated by at least a month on all NFL schedules.

This year:

Panthers vs Saints in both Week 14 and Week 16

Chiefs vs Broncos in both Week 11 and Week 13

Jaguars vs Texans in both Week 12 and Week 14

 
I agree that it's terrible. It might seem exciting but what happens if say Manning had an ankle injury that kept him out for 3 weeks and that happened to be in the same time frame they played the top team in their division twice? It seems like the NFL could have looked at how close together some of these were and made sure they spread them out a bit more.

 
The schedule is garbage.

The Pats had ZERO games against opponents who had extra rest. Either coming off a bye or a Thurs game the week before. No team got an advantage against them all season.

The Bills have FIVE games where their opponent is coming off extra rest, including three division games. And the Bills are coming off their bye this week....and up against a team who had extra rest from playing Thurs.

Bull####

 
Was much better when humans made the schedule. Now the NFL hires a computer firm to run random schedules millions of times ("advanced combinatorics") until they find one that works.

 
twice in three weeks ruins the mystique of the matchup.

Broncos Chiefs loses some luster because they just played last week...

 
Sarnoff said:
Was much better when humans made the schedule. Now the NFL hires a computer firm to run random schedules millions of times ("advanced combinatorics") until they find one that works.
Click to expand...
Did you start drinking early today?

 
The Duff Man said:
The schedule is garbage.

The Pats had ZERO games against opponents who had extra rest. Either coming off a bye or a Thurs game the week before. No team got an advantage against them all season.

The Bills have FIVE games where their opponent is coming off extra rest, including three division games. And the Bills are coming off their bye this week....and up against a team who had extra rest from playing Thurs.

Bull####
Click to expand...
This is nothing new. The Eagles last year faced like 6 teams coming off of a bye, including coming out of their own bye.

 
Hu-Tang Clan said:
I agree that it's terrible. It might seem exciting but what happens if say Manning had an ankle injury that kept him out for 3 weeks and that happened to be in the same time frame they played the top team in their division twice? It seems like the NFL could have looked at how close together some of these were and made sure they spread them out a bit more.
Click to expand...
happened last year. The Steelers had to play the Raven twice in 3 weeks and Big Ben was out for both of them. Divisional opponents should play once in the first 4-5 weeks and then again in the last 4-5 weeks.

Just one more instance of the NFL getting suckier.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The Duff Man said:
The schedule is garbage.

The Pats had ZERO games against opponents who had extra rest. Either coming off a bye or a Thurs game the week before. No team got an advantage against them all season.

The Bills have FIVE games where their opponent is coming off extra rest, including three division games. And the Bills are coming off their bye this week....and up against a team who had extra rest from playing Thurs.

Bull####
Click to expand...
And Dallas only had to do it once. And who are the biggest high profile owners? Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft.

So yeah, there is no way it is a coincidence.

 
The Duff Man said:
The schedule is garbage.

The Pats had ZERO games against opponents who had extra rest. Either coming off a bye or a Thurs game the week before. No team got an advantage against them all season.

The Bills have FIVE games where their opponent is coming off extra rest, including three division games. And the Bills are coming off their bye this week....and up against a team who had extra rest from playing Thurs.

Bull####
Click to expand...
Well to be fair...I think we can ALL agree that this is not a coincidence.

 
Ehh. Quirks have been occurring throughout the league's history. Including a playoff game (obviously sheer luck there), the Redskins once played three straight games vs the Giants.

The Jets once played consecutive games vs the Bills. The Bills played somebody in between tilts with the Jets. The Jets had a bye the middle week.

There are many examples of schedule quirks like the two cited above.

 
I'm sure it's just a stroke of randomness, but it seems like when Manning was a Colt, the Colts had several years they had to play the Patriots in the regular season.

Now he's a Bronco and voila, playing the Pats in NE no less.

 
Also, the bills and patriots both play in the afc east, but the patriots get to play buffalo twice, and the bills don't get to play buffalo at all.

 
pizzatyme said:
I'm sure it's just a stroke of randomness, but it seems like when Manning was a Colt, the Colts had several years they had to play the Patriots in the regular season.

Now he's a Bronco and voila, playing the Pats in NE no less.
Click to expand...
Neither conspiracy nor random. Teams in the same conference that finish in the same place in their division will always play each other the following season. Colts and Pats almost always won their divisions, and the one year they didn't, they both came in second. Broncos have also won their division the past two years (once with Tebow, once with Manning). So they've played the past two years as well.

 
pizzatyme said:
I'm sure it's just a stroke of randomness, but it seems like when Manning was a Colt, the Colts had several years they had to play the Patriots in the regular season.

Now he's a Bronco and voila, playing the Pats in NE no less.
Click to expand...
With a full week to prepare, in a game sandwiched by presumed cupcakes against the worst team in the nfl last year, while the patriots had short rest coming off a Monday night football game that ended with a controversial play involving the officiating. Meanwhile the broncos got to host the Thursday night opener against the defending superbowl champs, which gave them the advantage of getting eleven days to prepare for their week two game without the disadvantage of a short week the week before.
 
Rove! said:
twice in three weeks ruins the mystique of the matchup.

Broncos Chiefs loses some luster because they just played last week...
Click to expand...
So your not watching the rematch? It has not lost any luster in fact it has gained luster with both teams still fighting for the title.

 
On the list of things to complain about, this has got to rank right between Kicker shoe color and concession prices.

 
SproutDaddy said:
The Duff Man said:
Full article

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/NFL-scheduling-in-need-of-regulations/908bf9be-181f-46a6-9b76-c632ea671dbc

NO and KC are the other teams that had ZERO of these games.
Click to expand...
Ummmmm.......Saints are playing at Seattle this week who are coming off a bye.
Click to expand...
The article qualified that claim:

The Saints do face Seattle coming off their bye week, but have a Thursday night game of their own providing them with three extra days to prepare themselves.
Click to expand...
 
Seattle almost had two bye weeks......played a thursday game followed by a monday night game (11 days off), then their actual bye in week 12.

 
spodog said:
I understand that Goodell has asked the schedule wizards to place an emphasis the last few seasons on a larger number of Division games clustered towards the end of the season. It's good for ratings, it's interesting for the fans, and in some cases it helps ensure teams that they are more in control of their own destiny versus having to sit with their fingers crossed hoping some game halfway across the country goes their way in order to get into the playoffs.

However, there seems to be a large number of instances this year where two teams play each other in a span of 3 weeks. I think this is a ridiculous way to schedule games. The two games against division rivals is a good format, but these two games should be seperated by at least a month on all NFL schedules.

This year:

Panthers vs Saints in both Week 14 and Week 16

Chiefs vs Broncos in both Week 11 and Week 13

Jaguars vs Texans in both Week 12 and Week 14
Click to expand...
I don't see the problem. By this point in the season the teams have hit their stride and are what they are. To have the games spread out just to have variety is a weak argument. The NFL wanted the division games to mean something, and now they do.

I am eager for good football, that is it.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The same people that cry about this are crying about an outdoor superbowl and ref favoritism. Im a ravens fans; our locals are convinced the NFL, ESPN, and the refs are against us.

Every team faces adversity. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan.

Let the professionals play, stop whining, and enjoy the game.

 
Birds played 3 games in 11 days to start the season. And manning had the balls to ##### about the nfl scheduling their matchup following an eagles Thursday night game (giving them 10 days). It's all BS

 
bweiser said:
there seem to be very few NFC East matchups remaining despite this supposed attempt.
Click to expand...
They knew the division sucked going into the season ;) , but Week 17 Eagles at Dallas could be for the all the NFC East marbles. (or the right to get blown out in a WC game).

 
Ignoratio Elenchi said:
SproutDaddy said:
The Duff Man said:
Full article

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-2/NFL-scheduling-in-need-of-regulations/908bf9be-181f-46a6-9b76-c632ea671dbc

NO and KC are the other teams that had ZERO of these games.
Click to expand...
Ummmmm.......Saints are playing at Seattle this week who are coming off a bye.
Click to expand...
The article qualified that claim:
The Saints do face Seattle coming off their bye week, but have a Thursday night game of their own providing them with three extra days to prepare themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Didn't read the article. ......just his post.
 
Fariq said:
Ehh. Quirks have been occurring throughout the league's history. Including a playoff game (obviously sheer luck there), the Redskins once played three straight games vs the Giants.

The Jets once played consecutive games vs the Bills. The Bills played somebody in between tilts with the Jets. The Jets had a bye the middle week.

There are many examples of schedule quirks like the two cited above.
Click to expand...
Schedule quirks makes it sound like a random occurrence that happens via a force of nature from time to time.

The NFL has a staff of people whose full time job is to establish the schedule, work with the teams, the Networks, the venue owners and other stakeholders and create this thing.

We shouldn't have to just deal with "quirks" when people are employed full time to manage this process.

 
spodog said:
Fariq said:
Ehh. Quirks have been occurring throughout the league's history. Including a playoff game (obviously sheer luck there), the Redskins once played three straight games vs the Giants.

The Jets once played consecutive games vs the Bills. The Bills played somebody in between tilts with the Jets. The Jets had a bye the middle week.

There are many examples of schedule quirks like the two cited above.
Click to expand...
Schedule quirks makes it sound like a random occurrence that happens via a force of nature from time to time.

The NFL has a staff of people whose full time job is to establish the schedule, work with the teams, the Networks, the venue owners and other stakeholders and create this thing.

We shouldn't have to just deal with "quirks" when people are employed full time to manage this process.
Click to expand...
It is impossible to create a schedule that doesn't have quirks.

 
Don't understand this post and some of the posts that come with it.

In August who would have said that KC was going to give Denver a run for their money?

Furthermore, it's almost impossible to get a schedule that works for all teams without any kinds of quirks.

If Green Bay plays Chicago their last game, who can predict that they both won't make the playoffs and meet the next week?

Hindsight is 20/20

 
Dr. Brew said:
In August who would have said that KC was going to give Denver a run for their money?
Click to expand...
It's not about KC and Denver both being good. It's about them playing each other twice in three weeks.

Dr. Brew said:
Furthermore, it's almost impossible to get a schedule that works for all teams without any kinds of quirks.
Click to expand...
I don't remember this being as rampant an issue before. It's a recent thing.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
FreeBaGeL said:
Dr. Brew said:
In August who would have said that KC was going to give Denver a run for their money?
Click to expand...
It's not about KC and Denver both being good. It's about them playing each other twice in three weeks.
Dr. Brew said:
Furthermore, it's almost impossible to get a schedule that works for all teams without any kinds of quirks.
Click to expand...
I don't remember this being as rampant an issue before. It's a recent thing.
Click to expand...
It's also a recent thing to put bye weeks earlier and later. I believe in recent years bye weeks were no earlier than 5/6 and no later than 11. This year they were sooner and later. I think that has something to do with it

 
Bye weeks, Thursday night game, travel across the country and to London must reek havoc with the attempt to make a proper schedule.

 
Chase Stuart said:
spodog said:
Fariq said:
Ehh. Quirks have been occurring throughout the league's history. Including a playoff game (obviously sheer luck there), the Redskins once played three straight games vs the Giants.

The Jets once played consecutive games vs the Bills. The Bills played somebody in between tilts with the Jets. The Jets had a bye the middle week.

There are many examples of schedule quirks like the two cited above.
Click to expand...
Schedule quirks makes it sound like a random occurrence that happens via a force of nature from time to time.

The NFL has a staff of people whose full time job is to establish the schedule, work with the teams, the Networks, the venue owners and other stakeholders and create this thing.

We shouldn't have to just deal with "quirks" when people are employed full time to manage this process.
Click to expand...
It is impossible to create a schedule that doesn't have quirks.
Click to expand...
But the quirks could be spread more evenly amongst teams.

I don't care about two games in three weeks, but things like the Bills (and the Eagles last year) playing five or six games against teams with extra rest while othe teams play none is ridiculous and should be mitigated better.

 
The only thing I dont like about the schedule every year are the bye weeks. SOme teams have a bye week 4, and some week 12???? That's incredibly stupid.

Simple solution. Week 8 half the teams have a bye. Week 9 the other half have a bye. Problem solved.

And indirectly, this would be GREAT for fantasy football. Combine the NFL weeks 8 and 9 into one fantasy week, and BAM, no more bye weeks for players. Full strength every week.

It shortens the fantasy regular season to 12 weeks, but so what.

But really, forget fantasy, it just makes sense for all the teams involved from a fairness standpoint.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Joe Bryant
NFL Schedule and Rest
Replies
7
Views
732
BassNBrew
BassNBrew
JohnnyU
Thoughts on League Median Scoring in addition to weekly H2H matchup
Replies
41
Views
716
Long Ball Larry
Long Ball Larry
U
Cleveland Browns road to the number 1 seed!
Replies
8
Views
881
Gatorman
Gatorman

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top