Wellness

[gardenman]

And we're now minutes away from the official schedule release. A few details have already leaked out including the Eagles playing Detroit on Thanksgiving and likely opening the season against the Falcons. The Eagle's season finale is reportedly against the Giants in NY (actually NJ.) All we need now are the other 13 games and we'll be good to go. That season finale against the Giants could be interesting. If the Giants have a bad year, it could be the end of the road for Tom Coughlin. I'm not sure the Giants have done enough to improve their defense or offensive line, so they could have be in for another long season. O'Dell Beckham Junior is an amazing talent, but Eli will need time to find him and that offensive line will need to buy him that time.

[gardenman]

And the Eagle's schedule doesn't look too horrible. We start out at Atlanta, then have Dallas at home followed by a game at the Jets. I would have preferred the Dallas game a bit later so the team could come together a bit more before facing them. I have a feeling this year's Eagles' team will be playing better the longer the season goes on.

After the Jets we take on the Redskins at Washington, then the Saints and Giants come to Philly then we go to Carolina and then we go to Dallas. Every other week for the first nine games we play an NFC East team. The Cowboys in week 2, Redskins week 4, Giants week 6 and the Cowboys again in week 9. (We get a bye in week 8.) That's a tad odd. Then starts the Florida swing of the schedule with road games against the Dolphins and Bucs.

On Thanksgiving we play the Lions in Detroit. Then we have a mini-bye before facing the Patriots in New England. Then we get three home games in a row with Buffalo, Arizona and Washington coming to Philly and the season concludes with the a game at the Giants.

It's not hard to find ten or eleven wins in that mix. The game I'd most expect the Eagles to lose would be the Patriots game. I'd anticipate a split with the Cowboys. The Cardinals and Panther games figure to be tough. Miami could be a challenge too. All in all, it's not a bad schedule. At this moment I think the Eagles are better than the Redskins, Giants, Falcons, Saints, Bucs, Lions, and Bills. That's nine wins there (we play the Giants and Redskins twice.) A split with the Cowboys would be another win and then splitting the tough games could be could be another win or two.

[yellowrose]

Was hoping our Green Bay game would be early in the season. I would love to visit Lambeau. But the game is in mid December, and sitting out in the cold is not my idea of a good time. I shudder just thinking about it.

[gardenman]

On 4/22/2015 yellowrose said:

Was hoping our Green Bay game would be early in the season. I would love to visit Lambeau. But the game is in mid December, and sitting out in the cold is not my idea of a good time. I shudder just thinking about it.

Lucky for you there's global warming. Green Bay, Wisconsin should be in the 50's around mid December if you believe some of the projections. (Of course, it could be -50 if the "experts" are wrong.)

[gardenman]

Wow! A ten game suspension for Greg Hardy. That's going to impact the Cowboys in a pretty big way. Most had thought the suspension would be three to six games. He'll appeal this ruling, and I suspect we'll see the suspension shortened a bit (maybe back down to six) but that's a big hit for the Cowboys. They now have to decide what to do with him. They'll have a guy starting in his place for ten weeks (or so) and then bench him and let Hardy back in as the starter? That's not always good for team morale. We could see the Cowboys decide Greg Hardy isn't worth the trouble and release him. It's going to be interesting.

[teganslaw]

The Colts have a favorable schedule. The only cold weather game is in Pittsburgh in Dec.; the other teams from cold climates are earlier in the year.

They start out the season in Buffalo. The first home game is against the Jets on Monday night. (Strange time for that game.) The Patriots come to Lucas Oil in week 6. That is the second straight road game for New England. The bye week is week 10 after they play Denver.

In between, there is the rest of the AFC South, AFC East and NFC South. Not sure why the game against Carolina is on a Monday night. Maybe it's because of the two quarterbacks.

Anyway, I think that Buffalo could be tough. The Colts haven't done too well against a Rex Ryan team, and the Buffalo crowd will be in full force. Mostly, I want to get wins against New England (please!) and Pittsburgh.

[yellowrose]

Yikes...10 games. Even with an appeal, the decision won't come before the draft. So does the Cowboys make adjustments to their draft plans now or bank on the appeal taking it down to 4 games, as some think will happen. guess I'll know soon enough.

[gardenman]

On 4/22/2015 teganslaw said:

The Colts have a favorable schedule. The only cold weather game is in Pittsburgh in Dec.; the other teams from cold climates are earlier in the year.

They start out the season in Buffalo. The first home game is against the Jets on Monday night. (Strange time for that game.) The Patriots come to Lucas Oil in week 6. That is the second straight road game for New England. The bye week is week 10 after they play Denver.

In between, there is the rest of the AFC South, AFC East and NFC South. Not sure why the game against Carolina is on a Monday night. Maybe it's because of the two quarterbacks.

Anyway, I think that Buffalo could be tough. The Colts haven't done too well against a Rex Ryan team, and the Buffalo crowd will be in full force. Mostly, I want to get wins against New England (please!) and Pittsburgh.

Buffalo's going to be an interesting team to watch this year. If they can get competent QB play they could be pretty good. LeSean McCoy could be an upgrade for them if the line can give him some holes, but he did seem to lose his burst this past season. He's still as elusive as heck, but he just couldn't pull away from defenders as much last year. It wasn't a huge drop-off in quickness, but there was definitely a decline. Now that could have been injury related, or it could be wear and tear, but to be truly effective he needs that burst back. Defenders are pretty darn quick these days and backs need every tenth of a second they have in terms of speed.

I think the Patriots will be pretty good, but they lost a significant part of their secondary and if the new corners aren't up to snuff the Pats could be pretty vulnerable. The Panthers made the playoffs last year, but it was largely by default as there was no good team in the NFC South.

The Colts are set up for a good year or two run, but some of their additions this year are more short-term patches. Trent Cole, Frank Gore, and Todd Herremans are adequate for a year or two, but that's about all you can count on them for. I expect the Colts to be really good this year. Maybe better than the Pats.

[gardenman]

After looking at the NFC East schedules, I think the Redskins may be tied for the lead near the halfway mark of the season. The first half of their schedule is pretty winnable. They've got Miami, St. Louis, the Giants, the Eagles, Atlanta, the Jets, and Tampa Bay in their first seven games. There are a number of highly winnable games there. They could easily be 5-2 after the first seven games.

I suspect the bottom will then fall out as they've then got games against the Patriots, Saints, Panthers, Giants, Cowboys, Bears, Bills, Eagles, and Cowboys. They might only win two of those nine leaving them around a 7-9 record overall. I expect to see them get off to a good early start though.

[Krissie2]

Hi everyone, I hope it's OK if I bu** into your thread.

I'm a CO native (Broncos), and so was happy to see some nice comments about Tim Tebow. I wasn't a fan of him in the beginning, and I know he has a different style of playing, but there is something about him. I watched him unite and fire up a team and win games he had zero business winning, again and again.

I hope the Eagles give him a fair chance. After what happened in NY, he deserves it. And perhaps the media storm around him will have died down by now.