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April 11, 2007

Patriots' schedule: closer look

Hey all --

We had a beautiful (well, at least marginally attractive) little analysis of the season schedule written -- and then our internet went down and it all went away.

Anyway, all in all it's a pretty favorable schedule for the Patriots -- five nationally-televised games (though, surprisingly, not the rematch with the Colts), only one instance of where they're on the road for consecutive weeks (weeks 6 and 7, at Dallas and at Miami) and the bye week is in week 10, which seems like an ideal time.

We do find it pretty interesting that the game against the Colts, the rematch of the AFC Championship game, will not be a prime-time game. It's at 4:15 p.m., in Indy, in week 9.

But the Divisional round rematch with San Diego is a Sunday night game, in week 2 at Gillette Stadium. While New England and Indy have a rivalry -- the Nov. 4 game will be the 10th game between the teams since 2001 -- methinks the game with the Chargers could get ugly. San Diego acted up when it won here in 2005, and then there was the game in January, which seemed contentious throughout and ended with Philip Rivers calling Ellis Hobbs "sorry" and LaDainian Tomlinson calling out Bill Belichick for the behavior of the Pats players.

For his part, Hobbs said yesterday that he acknowledged immediately after the game that he was wrong for dancing at midfield at Qualcomm Stadium, and said as much to Tomlinson. As for Rivers' remarks, Hobbs felt the quarterback had let emotion get the best of him and "sank to my level."

Belichick and Tomlinson made nice at the Pro Bowl.

New England plays one other Sunday night game: week 12 (Nov. 25) against the Eagles in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX; and two Monday night games: Oct. 1 at Cincinnati, and Dec. 3 at Baltimore. The Patriots close out the regular season with a prime-time Saturday game, Dec. 29 at the Giants.

Super Bowl champ Indy is also on prime time five times this season, while Dallas will be on prime time seven times.

Remember, any game after week 10 is subject to change because of flex scheduling.

For the full NFL schedule, click here.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 2:17 PM | Permalink