Just little subtleties, like how frequently they seem to go road-home-road-home instead of getting to stay home for a consecutive two or three weeks. Some of that gets mitigated by their road games being a mere hundred miles away or so, but sometimes they're long hauls.
Of opening in Dallas. How many years has that been?
That would be a real tough one with Dak coming back and Dallas trying to start off well at home. On the other hand, if we could win that one, it could propel this team into a solid season with some confidence. That said, I hope it’s not in Dallas again on opening day!
Somewhat off topic, but it never fails to piss me off that Dallas ALWAYS has hosts a team on Thanksgiving & then has 11 days off afterwards. I get it's tradition & whatever, but it just constantly irks me.
Somewhat off topic, but it never fails to piss me off that Dallas ALWAYS has hosts a team on Thanksgiving & then has 11 days off afterwards. I get it's tradition & whatever, but it just constantly irks me.
It's not ALWAYS. You haven't noticed the schedule change for Dallas the last 5 years.
The NFL has Dallas playing one of the other teams that play on Thanksgiving the following Thursday.
This is why Dallas will not be playing on opening night versus Tampa Bay. That would be 3 Thursday games on the schedule.
The schedule advantage the Cowboys have is even more unfair than you might think. The past few seasons they've played Thanksgiving, then they've played on the next Thursday night usually at home again, but against another team that's played on Thanksgiving. THEN they have the 11 day break until their next Sunday game. Watch for this quirk again tomorrow when the 2021 schedule comes out.
The schedule advantage the Cowboys have is even more unfair than you might think. The past few seasons they've played Thanksgiving, then they've played on the next Thursday night usually at home again, but against another team that's played on Thanksgiving. THEN they have the 11 day break until their next Sunday game. Watch for this quirk again tomorrow when the 2021 schedule comes out.
In the 5 years that the NFL changed the Dallas schedule, Dallas has played on the road the next week 3 of those years.
The schedule advantage the Cowboys have is even more unfair than you might think. The past few seasons they've played Thanksgiving, then they've played on the next Thursday night usually at home again, but against another team that's played on Thanksgiving. THEN they have the 11 day break until their next Sunday game. Watch for this quirk again tomorrow when the 2021 schedule comes out.
In the 5 years that the NFL changed the Dallas schedule, Dallas has played on the road the next week 3 of those years.
Not at home usually.
Good catch, I read 2019 wrong.
Doesn't change the fact that they still get an advantage of a Thursday game at home on a short week, then a full week off to either hit the road or play at home and then a long break before the stretch run.
IIRC the Giants played @ Dallas coming off a trip to the west coast. Played @ Philly on a Thursday night. Played Philly @ Giants with Eagles coming off a bye week.
Of opening in Dallas. How many years has that been?
Agreed. I actually think there shouldn't be divisional games week 1. There's so much rust that it doesn't make much sense to me. And people are watching week 1 anyway, so I doubt the ratings matter much.
I used to track this manually....it really pissed me off. Every year, I’d go through our schedule and compare “plus” situations vs “negative” situations (comparing rest, or west coast teams playing us at 1pm, etc,) You would expect it to even out over the years, but I don’t remember a year where we had more “plus” games vs “negative” ones.
BUT....I believe I read in 2019, that they added that to their schedule analysis to try to get a more balanced and fair schedule. And when I checked it that year, we were on par with the rest of the division.
In 2020, they had special covid circumstances, so everything went out the window. I’m hoping that this year’s schedule is more fair.
Four years ago, a group of University at Buffalo researchers submitted a paper to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, outlining a mathematical approach by which the NFL could potentially produce a materially fair and largely disparity-free schedule.
The NFL agreed to a three-year research grant in November 2018 to provide year-round method development and schedule testing. The league confirmed the agreement but did not comment further.
In developing the schedule, NFL assigns "penalty points" to outcomes such as three-game road trips, games between teams with disparate rest, and road trips following a Monday night road game. In their final proof of concept in 2017 before receiving the grant, Karwan and Steever took the 2016 schedule and lowered the penalty total by 20 percent.
At that point, the NFL asks its computers to run schedule simulations until it finds one that has an acceptable penalty total. Usually that means juggling the 40 to 50 pre-seeded games. Karwan and Steever believe the key to improving the schedule is to better choose those pre-seeded games, allowing the computer to see stronger schedules that would otherwise be blocked by the initial choices through a process known as integer programming.
The Patriots had one of the toughest schedule according to this and jaguars and browns had the easiest schedule.. those 2 and most of the other top 10 teams didn't really have sustained success in that time period.. it's something fans can bitch about..
The more fans your team has the more times you're team plays off-Sunday games and SNF and end up on this list..
That would be a real tough one with Dak coming back and Dallas trying to start off well at home. On the other hand, if we could win that one, it could propel this team into a solid season with some confidence. That said, I hope it’s not in Dallas again on opening day!
2 - Jaguars
3 - Panthers
4 - Lions
5 - Bengals
Is there a cat lover in the NFL Scheduling Office?
:-)
Games vs teams coming off byes
Games vs teams coming off homes games
Games vs teams with far less travel
It's not ALWAYS. You haven't noticed the schedule change for Dallas the last 5 years.
The NFL has Dallas playing one of the other teams that play on Thanksgiving the following Thursday.
This is why Dallas will not be playing on opening night versus Tampa Bay. That would be 3 Thursday games on the schedule.
In the 5 years that the NFL changed the Dallas schedule, Dallas has played on the road the next week 3 of those years.
Not at home usually.
Quote:
The schedule advantage the Cowboys have is even more unfair than you might think. The past few seasons they've played Thanksgiving, then they've played on the next Thursday night usually at home again, but against another team that's played on Thanksgiving. THEN they have the 11 day break until their next Sunday game. Watch for this quirk again tomorrow when the 2021 schedule comes out.
In the 5 years that the NFL changed the Dallas schedule, Dallas has played on the road the next week 3 of those years.
Not at home usually.
Good catch, I read 2019 wrong.
Doesn't change the fact that they still get an advantage of a Thursday game at home on a short week, then a full week off to either hit the road or play at home and then a long break before the stretch run.
That would be great.
Agreed. I actually think there shouldn't be divisional games week 1. There's so much rust that it doesn't make much sense to me. And people are watching week 1 anyway, so I doubt the ratings matter much.
[quote] In comment 15261202 CGiants07 said:
Quote:
(tv maps website ) that we are opening at philadelphia on mnf to start the year
Not Happening. In fact no revenge match until after our bye!
That streak ended last season, with a home game vs Pittsburgh.
BUT....I believe I read in 2019, that they added that to their schedule analysis to try to get a more balanced and fair schedule. And when I checked it that year, we were on par with the rest of the division.
In 2020, they had special covid circumstances, so everything went out the window. I’m hoping that this year’s schedule is more fair.
Four years ago, a group of University at Buffalo researchers submitted a paper to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, outlining a mathematical approach by which the NFL could potentially produce a materially fair and largely disparity-free schedule.
The NFL agreed to a three-year research grant in November 2018 to provide year-round method development and schedule testing. The league confirmed the agreement but did not comment further.
In developing the schedule, NFL assigns "penalty points" to outcomes such as three-game road trips, games between teams with disparate rest, and road trips following a Monday night road game. In their final proof of concept in 2017 before receiving the grant, Karwan and Steever took the 2016 schedule and lowered the penalty total by 20 percent.
At that point, the NFL asks its computers to run schedule simulations until it finds one that has an acceptable penalty total. Usually that means juggling the 40 to 50 pre-seeded games. Karwan and Steever believe the key to improving the schedule is to better choose those pre-seeded games, allowing the computer to see stronger schedules that would otherwise be blocked by the initial choices through a process known as integer programming.
ESPN - ( New Window )
The more fans your team has the more times you're team plays off-Sunday games and SNF and end up on this list..
But for the first off-season in years, I have reasonable hope for the upcoming season. In Judge I trust.
@SharpFootball
·
6m
with NYG traveling to WAS on Thursday night week 2
yet ANOTHER short-week road game for the Giants
their 17th... and the most short week road games in the NFL
completely unfair to NYG due to how disadvantageous these spots are & how many NYG has played
Anyway, he just followed up with our short week away game for week 2.
Quote:
Warren Sharp
@SharpFootball
·
6m
with NYG traveling to WAS on Thursday night week 2
yet ANOTHER short-week road game for the Giants
their 17th... and the most short week road games in the NFL
completely unfair to NYG due to how disadvantageous these spots are & how many NYG has played
And to top it off, WFT also plays at home in Week 1, except they have an early game while the Giants play at 425.