Some NFL Scheduling Oddities

I know Monday night ain't what it used to be. But can you believe that neither the Jets nor the Giants, the two teams in the biggest football media market, play at home on Monday night? In fact, the last time the Jets hosted a Monday night regular season game was December 26, 2005 and the last time the G-men hosted a Monday night regular season game was September 15, 2003!!! But maybe that is good news for Big Blue after looking at the stat below that they are 18-31-1 on Monday night. It certainly will play into this "Road Warrior" mentality that Coughlin has gotten his team to play with.

 

Andrew Fletcher of the awesome Scott Proctor's Arm (great in both name and content) pointed out in our comments section that the last regular season game at Giants Stadium is to be played by the New York Jets. Ralph Vacchiano of the Daily News also finds this odd saying "I’m stunned that the Jets will apparently be playing the final game at Giants Stadium. I realize the sentimentality attached to football stadiums isn’t as great as it is to baseball stadiums, but does that make any sense to anyone?" Let's just hope there's a few playoff games there for the Giants as well (though not windy...because when the wind blows, so does Eli). Matt Mosley of ESPN.com analyzes the Giants schedule and predicts them to go 11-5 or 12-4. Below are some great nuggets (I picked a few out of them) from Mosley and the Giants PR staff:

• The Giants will play seven games against 2008 playoff teams, including five at home
• Five of the first eight games are on the road. Last year, five of the first eight were at home. Last year's schedule allowed the Giants to stack up a lot of wins in the first half of the season, which sustained them through a turbulent December.
• The Giants last played on Thanksgiving on Nov. 26, 1992, when they lost to the Cowboys in Dallas, 30-3. The Giants are 7-6 on Thanksgiving, but have played on the holiday just twice since 1938, including a 13-6 victory over the Lions in Detroit on Nov. 25, 1982.
• The Giants are 18-31-1 on Monday nights and 13-15-1 on Sunday nights.
• The Nov. 15 bye is the Giants' latest since 2001, when they were off on Dec. 2.

One last point from Mosley: The NFL should take a cue from the Masters and cut back on TV timeouts. I couldn't agree more. The worst situation is when there's a challenge after a TD. You first have a TD, then celebration, then challenge (commercial), then come back to the ref still under the hood, then decision (let's say TD), then explanation of decision to coach who is upset, then extra point, then TV timeout, then kickoff, then another TV timeout. Too much time away from the game. The NHL has worked more to keep the viewer in the arena and I think that the NFL and MLB (like not going to commercial every pitching change and shortening the amount of throws those guys get) need to do the same.