Some thing a little of topic: Schedule - playing rested teams

[bwparker]

Another thread mentioned that San Fran was coming off a bye and I thought "Two teams coming off a bye in a row? Thats unfair." How unfair? Well, I just found out. Looks like we got the short end of the coming-off-a-bye stick, but not the shortEST. That distinction belongs to San Diego.

Hypothetically, every team gets a bye week so every team should have to PLAY a team coming of a bye week, but this isn't true. These teams never have to play a well rested opponent.

Atlanta
Baltimore
Carolina
Denver
Detroit
Giants
Green Bay
Houston
New Orleans(but we give them a break because...well..you know)
Pittsburgh

Thats a pretty monster list. So who got screwed with multiples?

San Diego - 4 **
Buffalo - 3
Minnesota - 2*
Washington - 2*
Chicago - 2
New England - 2
Dallas - 2

* - Denotes consequitive rested opponents
** - Denotes 3 consequitive rested opponents

Looks like San Diego gets shafted HARD. But we didn't end up too dandy either.

I also took a look at home/away for this...not much changes.

San Diego - 3 aways
Buffalo - 3 Aways

New England - 2 Homes

All other 2 gamers - 1 away, 1 home

Side Note: Cleveland and Chicago played each other after bye-weeks...so they barely sneek by with having to play a rested team.

[smoak]

I absolutely agree that it is a factor and I already knew SD was getting shafted by the schedule makers this year. As for us, I won't complain, but I really dislike that the Giants NEVER have to play a team coming off a bye AND get 9 home games. INSANE!

[hockeygoalie29]

Ha ha, you beat me to it, I was just doing the research to put this list together! I find it hard to believe the league can't have every team play ONE team off a buy each week. I really do feel bad for San Diego, they have a BRUTAL schedule to begin with but now they have 4 teams coming off of buy weeks AND 3 in a row! That stinks.

[Ibleedburgundy]

I was talking about this with a friend the other day and he suggested that teams coming off bye weeks should play each other. Then nobody gets the advantage. That wouldn't be so hard for the NFL to organize either.

[dj_stouty]

That is almost as bad as the NFL giving the Giants an extra home game!

I think the scheduling committee should look into spreading those out a bit more.

[BigCountry]

For the first time in years the heart of our schedule is seemingly favorable so I'm not saying anything about the schedule.

[bwparker]

So my friend challenged me and I went and looked up the corresponding stats to see how muc this matters.
This year teams coming of their bye week are 5-7 History looks like this

~2005: 5-7
2004: 15-17
2003: 19-13
2002: 17-15
2001: 13-17
2000: 15-15

Overall: 84-84

So it looks like this isn't really a meaningful stat because teams coming off their bye week don't tend to win any more often than otherwise. So much for having pity on San Diego or us for that matter...its all a wash.

[smoak]

Originally Posted by BigCountry

For the first time in years the heart of our schedule is seemingly favorable so I'm not saying anything about the schedule.

I thought it was favorable in '04 as well... but that didn't turn out the right way.