Next Season’s Top 5 NFL Matchups (Assuming Favre Comes Back)
__________________________________________________________________________(Another) one of the great things about The NFL is its precise scheduling that is so easy to follow that we know who’s playing who by the end of each season. Keep in mind that these will be the 2011 matchups:
In-conference matchups
NFC North vs. NFC East
NFC South vs. NFC West
Out-of-conference matchups
NFC North vs. AFC East
NFC South vs. AFC North
NFC East vs. AFC South
NFC West vs. AFC West
Next season’s top 5 NFL Matchups
#5. Green Bay Packers @ New York Jets. This will be a matchup of the two leading candidates for defensive player of the year in 2009 in Charles Woodson and Derrelle Revis (who will never be on the field at the same time). This may have fallen through the cracks during the postseason, but during another one of his mini-tirades that have come to define him, Rex Ryan said the following after Derrelle Revis lost out on Defensive Player of the Year honors in favor of Charles Woodson:
“I would like to congratulate the people that voted for Darrelle Revis. These guys obviously really know the game. And you’ve got to look at all the numbers, not just a number about this, or this stat or that stat…”
“A number I think is interesting would be eight. And no, that’s not the amount of touchdown passes Green Bay gave up against Arizona. That is the number of touchdown passes we gave up all season. And the biggest reason for that is Darrelle Revis.”
God bless the ‘bulletin board game’.
#4. New England Patriots vs. San Diego Chargers. We didn’t get to see this game last year, but this game has quietly developed into one of The NFL’s mini-rivalries over the years. With the window slowly closing on the team of the 2000′s, this may be the last time we see a heated slugfest between these two competitive AFC foes for a while.
#3. New Orleans Saints vs. Dallas Cowboys. You can make the argument that The New Orleans Saints vs. anybody is intriguing TV as they will be the reigning Superbowl champs, but this is a guaranteed prime time game as it was the Cowboys who ended The Saints undefeated streak just a year ago. Besides, in today’s NFL you just can’t quite call yourselves the Superbowl Champs until you’ve beaten The Cowboys. Right? 
#2. Favre vs. The Packers. These two games were ratings catnip for The NFL, and the schedule makers would love for Favre to make his decision in a timely manner (good luck) so that they can have the green light to showcase the Favre Bowl front and center and reap all the benefits. While this was the game to watch last season on two different occasions, it now takes a backseat to the #1 game to watch as we’ve already seen this movie before.
#1. The Manning Bowl. Next season’s bi-decadally (twice per decade) matchup between Peyton and Eli will draw a shitload of intrigue because of the rarity of this occurrence. The last Manning Bowl kicked off the 2006 NFL season behind an an intense build, and now that each quarterback has a ring, the game could very well be saved for pay-per-view.
Projected 2011 Monday Night Football Schedule
Indianapolis Colts vs. New York Giants
New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts
Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers
Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins
Minnesota Vikings vs. New England Patriots
New Orleans Saints vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
San Diego Chargers vs. Indianapolis Colts
New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers vs. San Francisco 49ers
Dallas Cowboys vs. Indianapolis Colts
New York Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles
New England Patriots vs. New York Jets
Baltimore Ravens vs. New York Jets
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Arizona Cardinals vs. San Francisco 49ers
Denver Broncos vs. San Diego Chargers
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Tags: NFL, NFL 2011 Schedule, The Cowboys' reguarlarly scheduled timeslot to resume on Monday Nights
