The Ravens 2011 Schedule

I saw the movie “Big Fan” recently.  One of my favorite scenes comes at the end when the protagonist is visited by his friend in prison with the Giants new schedule.  He holds it up to the glass as they talk on the prison phones and the inmate says “this schedule is cake!”  The two agree that 15-1 is a possibility, but that the difficult games are Green Bay, New England, and San Diego.  Does it bother anyone else that the Giants can’t play the Patriots and Chargers in the same season?

The NFL schedule was released Tuesday.  Unlike previous years, I’m at a loss to find any significant way in which the Ravens were not advantaged. 

There is no point complaining about the specific teams the Ravens will play, because that is all formulaic and based on the division and last season’s standing.  Playing the NFC West and AFC South is a good combination in the schedule rotation, but not something concocted by the schedulers.  By winning percentage last year, the Ravens play the 2^nd easiest schedule.

Let’s start with the positives:

·         The Ravens do not have a foreign game on their schedule.

·         They have no “road trip” worse than consecutive Sundays.

·         They play only 1 game (week 17 vs. Cincinnati) where snow is likely to be a factor.  In the past decade, the Ravens have played well in cold or high wind, but poorly in rain.  I honestly can’t recall the last time they played a game with significant snow on the field.  The games at Seattle and at Jacksonville are both more likely to be impacted by rain.

·         They have a moderate chance that a game in week 14 or 15 (Ind, @SD) will have its time changed due to flexible scheduling.  In the case of the Chargers game, that would mean a move out of prime time.

·         They play just 1 Monday night game (week 7, at Jacksonville).  The fewer Monday games the better, but a franchise like the Ravens is bound to have several prime time games each year.  This season they are primarily Sunday night.  Following their lone Monday game they play home vs. Arizona.

·         For the first time since the 1999 debacle against the Chiefs, the Ravens will play on a Thursday at home.  That’s simply an enormous advantage and it comes 10 days before a road division game (Cleveland).  The Ravens do not play any team coming off a Thursday night.

·         Most importantly, the Ravens do not face a team coming off a bye.  In 2009 the Ravens played 3 teams immediately following their bye and in 2010 they played 2.  That was compounded by the fact that in both years, those games were played consecutively.  I can’t resist soap-boxing whenever I see this, but there are 32 byes in the NFL and 32 teams.  Each team should play exactly 1 game against another team coming off a bye.  That would be very easy to accomplish with divisional bye weeks (or divisional bye-week pairings) followed by a divisional game.

I can identify just 3 minor gripes:

·         The Ravens bye week is in week 5.  An early bye is not optimal.

·         The decision to change the scheduling for the West coast teams has the Ravens making 2 trips there when the standard rotation should have them visiting just Arizona and St. Louis

·         The Ravens play Cleveland and at Cincinnati the last 2 weeks.  It’s preferable to play one of the top tier teams the last 2 weeks because they are often in “rest-the-regulars” mode.  Divisional scheduling prevents a week 17 matchup with the Colts.  If the Chargers run away with the West, they still will not have their seeding wrapped up by week 15.

If you don’t like this year’s schedule, you’ll never be happy. 

Now all we need is to make sure it gets played.