NFL Scheduling advantages/disadvantages..... (1 Viewer)

[Stinkin Ref]

For the purposes of this post, "late game" means anything other then the early games...

1. Denver will play only one "early" game this year......which they lost (STL)......

2. Buffalo plays all "early" games.....

3. Tennessee and Houston will play only one "late" game this year....

4. Atlanta only two "late" games.....

most of the other teams have a little more balance of late vs. early.........

was looking at the schedule and wondered if there was an advantage or disadvantage to having schedules like this.....interesting that the only game that Denver has lost so far is their only early game....

I remember seeing a post early in the year that Denver was originally scheduled to play Pittsburgh in the Thursday Kickoff game, but Shanahan complained because his team had a preseason game on the road the week before, so the NFL changed it to Miami......curious if things like this happen more then we know.....

wonder if players prefer to play the late or the early games......

 

[shredhead]

Would be interesting to see stats on this type of thing. As a lifelong Broncos fan I can tell you that they don't do as well when playing early games. Part of this is that any early games they play are going to be road games. Being out west all home games start at 2 PM MST. I am guessing that Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Phoenix, and San Diego all start their home games in the afternoon as well. So I am not sure if Denver's inferior record in early games has to do with start time or being the visitor.

 

[Sidewinder]

How about this one for a scheduling inequity:

4 times in the first 8 weeks, Carolina gets to play a team coming off of a Monday night game.

Wk 2 - at Minn (Vikings played Wash wk 1 MNF)

Wk 4 - vs NO (Saints played Atl wk 3 MNF)

Wk 6 - at Balt (Ravens played Den wk 5 MNF)

Wk 8 - vs Dal (Cowboys played NYG wk 7 MNF)

 

[SSOG]

For the purposes of this post, "late game" means anything other then the early games...1. Denver will play only one "early" game this year......which they lost (STL)......2. Buffalo plays all "early" games.....3. Tennessee and Houston will play only one "late" game this year....4. Atlanta only two "late" games.....most of the other teams have a little more balance of late vs. early.........was looking at the schedule and wondered if there was an advantage or disadvantage to having schedules like this.....interesting that the only game that Denver has lost so far is their only early game....I remember seeing a post early in the year that Denver was originally scheduled to play Pittsburgh in the Thursday Kickoff game, but Shanahan complained because his team had a preseason game on the road the week before, so the NFL changed it to Miami......curious if things like this happen more then we know.....wonder if players prefer to play the late or the early games......

The reason Denver has so few "early" games is because it's an AFC West teams. Games played in AFC West stadiums traditionally are in the later time slot, because of the time zone difference (the "early" games are noon on the east coast and the late games are 1 on the West coast, so the late games are pretty much at the same time as the early games if you're a western team). They play 6 AFC West games (all of which are traditionally afternoon games), as well as 5 additional home games (which again are typically afternoon games), and thanks to the way the scheduling plays out this year, the AFC West plays the NFC West (who also play in the afternoon). That makes 13 games in stadiums that traditionally play in the afternoon (except for St. Louis, which really isn't that far west, comparatively, and plays in the mornings). It just so happens that the rest of Denver's games that might have been early games got bumped up to night games, instead.It's not a conspiracy theory, it's just simple geographics. Teams in the westernmost time games play "late" games, because the "late" games there are about as early as the "early" games on the East coast. Due to the present schedule, Denver played a lot of games west of the mississippi, and since Denver is so good and tends to get nationally televised a lot, Denver got a lot of night games. It's not an "advantage", it's just good old-fashioned common sense.

 

[fridayfrenzy]

All of Seattle's home games are the late slot, which is simply because they play on the west coast. They had troubles before heading to the east coast and playing a early slot...that meant it was like 9am for them, instead of usually playing at like 3pm.