A Look at the 2011 NFL Schedule

In spite of the looming labor issues that threaten the upcoming season, it's still difficult not to get excited about the release of the NFL schedule, just as I get excited every year. Did my team get on prime time? Get screwed? Any changes to the usual format of scheduling (bring back the December Saturday doubleheaders!)?

So here at the Slant Pattern, we will plug our heads firmly in the sand and react as though the schedule is a sure thing to be played out. Here are my thoughts on a game or two each week:

WEEK 1

As they have been doing the last few years, the upcoming season will kick off on the Thursday night before the first full Sunday of action. Usually, this game will feature a rematch of either the previous year's Super Bowl or one of the conference's championship game. Such a contest was available — the Bears and the Packers meet twice this year, of course — but instead the NFL decided to go with the Packers vs. the Saints in this slot.

This is a bit of a puzzler. The bloom is nearly off the rose in New Orleans, where they were humiliated by the Seahawks in the playoffs. The Bears/Packers, in addition to being a championship game rematch, is also one of the two or three greatest rivalries in the NFL. Why not that?

WEEK 2

Not a fun week, with only three games featuring teams where they both made the playoffs last year, and one of those is the Seahawks at the Steelers. So I reckon the Sunday Night game (which replaced Monday Night as the marquee game each week several years ago) featuring the Eagles traveling to the Falcons is the best of a bad lot. I will be interested to see how Atlantans react to Michael Vick's return.

WEEK 3

So this is where the Packers and the Bears meet for the first time, in Chicago, and it doesn't even make primetime. The games that are on Sunday Night and Monday Night Football, respectively, are no slouches though: Steelers at Colts and Redskins at Cowboys.

WEEK 4

My Buccaneers are on primetime for the first time in three years (hosting the Colts on MNF). Hooray! Besides that, it's another clunker of a week, with only one game featuring two 2010-11 playoff teams not counting the Seasquawks: SNF's Jets at Ravens.

WEEK 5

As I said earlier, MNF doesn't have the cache it used to have, as it has been supplanted by SNF, and they will put games on MNF that are not exactly headliners. Still, I was surprised that the Lions will actually make a prime time appearance this week on MNF, hosting the Bears. I'd scoff, but I feel so damn bad for the Lions fan base and the years of ridiculous mismanagement they've put up with that all I can say is, bully for them for this bread crumb.

WEEK 6

Not much this week, with six teams on byes. One game that would've looked amazing a couple years ago, but still might be good depending on how much the Cowboys continue to build momentum under Jason Garrett, is their trip to Foxboro to take on the Patriots.

WEEK 7

For the second time in three years, the Buccaneers are going to play in the now-annual London game. I have mixed feelings about this, mainly because both this year and two years ago, the Bucs were the designated home team, meaning they give up a "real" home game. Still, it will be nice to see the field of one of the most famous stadia in the world, Wembley Stadium, done up in the Buccaneers colors and logos. Additionally, they are a much better team now than in 2009 when they were waxed 35-7 by the Patriots in front of 84,000 loyal British subjects.

WEEK 8

Speaking of games held outside the U.S., this will be the week the Bills play in Toronto, hosting the Redskins, a team they actually have a chance of beating. The game of the week, however, is unquestionably the Patriots at the Steelers.

WEEK 9

This week may be the best of the year. Check this out: Falcons at Colts, Bucs at Saints, Packers at Chargers, Giants at Patriots, Ravens at Steelers, and Bears at Eagles. Oh yes ... and Bengals at Titans!

WEEK 10

This is the week when Thursday Night games every week start up, which replaced my beloved Saturday afternoon games. The first matchup is so-so — Raiders at Chargers. The best matchups this week are divisional rivalries — Patriots at Jets and Saints at Falcons.

WEEK 11

Pretty blah. Eagles at Giants is the best game, and if the Chargers return to form, their matchup against the Bears should be decent.

WEEK 12

Thanksgiving Week. This year, it's the Packers traveling to Detroit and the Dolphins heading to Dallas, followed by the food hangover snoozer of 49ers at Ravens. Sunday and Monday treat us better with Patriots at Eagles, Steelers at Chiefs, and Giants at Saints.

WEEK 13

A tough stretch for the Chiefs continue, traveling to Chicago this week. The Packers at the Giants should be a great game, but the one everyone will be looking forward to is the Colts at the Patriots. NFL.com tells me this is the ninth straight year they have met, which is a tribute to how well these teams have done (as the first-place team in each division plays all the other first-place teams in their conference the next year).

WEEK 14

The week's best matchups on paper would seem to be the Colts at the Ravens and the Chiefs at the Jets, but I will be pretty intrigued by the Redskins hosting the Patriots. The last time these teams hooked up, the Pats won 52-7 to improve to 8-0 in what turned out to the their undefeated regular season. They were still throwing the ball up 45-0 in the latter half of the fourth quarter, and it just felt like a turning point game where you understood that these 2007 Patriots were perhaps the greatest team of all time, and the most hateable.

WEEK 15

Do you watch NFL games with your significant other? How do you handle it if you have different favorite teams? My girlfriend and I have chosen a path of supporting the other's team second only to our own. The only time that might get awkward is when they play each other, as my Buccaneers do when they host her Cowboys on Saturday night. I'm sure we will cut the tension with lots of beer and wine.

WEEK 16

Most of the games move to Saturday this week, as Sunday is Christmas. They did give us one outstanding Christmas night game, however — that Bears/Packers matchup I said should be held in Week 1. The Giants and the Jets battle for NYC supremacy this week, as well.

WEEK 17

For the second straight year, the NFL has decided to go with all divisional matchups in the final week of the season in order to increase the chances of crucial games being played. It's a good idea in theory, but not in execution, at least not this year: Just one of those divisional matchups features the teams that finished 1-2 in their division last year: The Colts at the Jaguars. By contrast, five of the matchups are the team that won their division last year against the team that finished last in it.