Lions at Chiefs to kickoff the season

[6kings]

The Kansas City Chiefs will face the Lions in Week 1 on a Thursday night edition of Sunday Night Football on Sept. 7, NBC announced.

[6kings]

[darin3]

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else the whole "schedule release" stuff is nonsense?  It's all they're talking about on NFL-Network and NFL-Radio.  I mean, I love the NFL and all but who really cares when certain teams play?  The NFL just likes to be the center of the sports world year-round and this is just manufactured news to try and draw eyes in.  I couldn't care less.

[T-Scorp]

So we get the Lions against the defending Super bowl Champs for the opener?  I hope the Lions live up to their preseason hype or that could be a stinker of a game!

[darin3]

1 hour ago, T-Scorp said:

So we get the Lions against the defending Super bowl Champs for the opener?  I hope the Lions live up to their preseason hype or that could be a stinker of a game!

NFL-Radio heads were talking about what a resurgence we saw from the Lions last season on my morning drive today. They started 1-6 I believe but could have easily been 4-3.  And then I believe they said they finished 8-2 to close out the season.  A team that's been a dumpster fire for the past couple of decades is suddenly one of the NFL's darlings.  Fun to watch on both sides of the ball and a fiery coach leading the charge.

Edited May 11, 2023 by darin3

[Big John]

Did you mean '22?

[6kings]

1 hour ago, T-Scorp said:

So we get the Lions against the defending Super bowl Champs for the opener?  I hope the Lions live up to their preseason hype or that could be a stinker of a game!

Especially when the Eagles are on the Chiefs schedule 

[Gopher]

If there's one thing the Lions did last year, it was put up points.  Yeah, they started 1-6, which included what were really their only two "stinkers" in terms of offensive production all year... A Week 5 loss to NE (29-0), and a Week 7 loss to DAL (24-6).  Ironically, those two games sandwiched their Week 6 bye.  Other than that, they were in basically every game, and came within a tie-breaker of making the playoffs.  They had the same record as SEA, were a  half-game behind NYG, and had a BETTER record than the NFC South-winning Bucs.  Considering that defense was their real weakness last year, and that their defense was led by a rookie DE in Hutchinson, not to mention adding the best ILB in the draft, it's hard to imagine that they won't be better this year.  And, they added more pieces to an offense that was already difficult to stop.  

They went 5-1 against the NFC North (only loss was 28-24 to MIN), and performed relatively well against last year's playoff teams.... 

MIN:  28-24 Loss / 34-23 Win
PHI:  38-35 Loss
SEA:  48-45 Loss
DAL:  24-6 Loss
MIA:  31-27  Loss
NYG:  31-18 Win
BUF:  28-25 Loss
JAC:  40-14 Win

That's three double-digit wins, and five of their six losses were by either 3 or 4 points.  I could easily see that number flipping to where they win more than they lose this year.  But, the real point here is that they were in the game, down to the final possession, in most of their games last year (including the games against the league's best teams).  

Now, it's the Chiefs in KC, and you never know what you might get there.  Could KC blow them out?  Sure, I suppose.  I wouldn't be shocked if that happens.  But, I would be surprised if the Lions don't at least put up a fair amount of points themselves.  Dan Campbell will have them ready, no doubt.  
 

[darin3]

1 hour ago, Gopher said:

not to mention adding the best ILB in the draft, it's hard to imagine that they won't be better this year. 
 

They also added the best DB in Brian Branch.  And didn't really even need to since they got Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, but they'll figure out how to get them both on the field.  Their defense is going to be MUCH better.

[chester]

15 hours ago, darin3 said:

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else the whole "schedule release" stuff is nonsense?  It's all they're talking about on NFL-Network and NFL-Radio.  I mean, I love the NFL and all but who really cares when certain teams play?  The NFL just likes to be the center of the sports world year-round and this is just manufactured news to try and draw eyes in.  I couldn't care less.

It gives us Wisconsinites a reason to bitch about warm weather teams never coming here in Dec.  

But, yes, I agree with the rest. Unless you are planning trips/tickets around the dates.

[Chief Dick]

5 hours ago, chester said:

It gives us Wisconsinites a reason to bitch about warm weather teams never coming here in Dec.  

But, yes, I agree with the rest. Unless you are planning trips/tickets around the dates.

The Chiefs will be there in December.

Planning on coming to that game. 

[stevegrab]

23 hours ago, darin3 said:

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else the whole "schedule release" stuff is nonsense?  It's all they're talking about on NFL-Network and NFL-Radio.  I mean, I love the NFL and all but who really cares when certain teams play?  The NFL just likes to be the center of the sports world year-round and this is just manufactured news to try and draw eyes in.  I couldn't care less.

The constant year round hype of the NFL has been nauseating. I watch tons of NFL games during the season, every week its 2-3 on Sunday afternoon, another 1 each Sunday and Monday nights and even some Thursday night games when I had access. I'll watch extended highlights of 3-6 more games each week. After the Super Bowl, I mostly ignore the NFL. That includes the combine, the draft, the schedule release, training camp. By pre-season I'm paying a bit more attention, reading news and watching some footage. 

[stevegrab]

7 hours ago, chester said:

It gives us Wisconsinites a reason to bitch about warm weather teams never coming here in Dec.  

But, yes, I agree with the rest. Unless you are planning trips/tickets around the dates.

When I had season tickets I cared more about the home game schedule, it might mean taking some time off work (hated working at 8AM after a night game) or make sure I wasn't making other conflicting plans. 

I still look at the schedule once its out, consider what might be good or bad for my team. But I don't sit on the edge of my seat waiting for and watching some schedule release show. 

[darin3]

3 hours ago, stevegrab said:

The constant year round hype of the NFL has been nauseating. I watch tons of NFL games during the season, every week its 2-3 on Sunday afternoon, another 1 each Sunday and Monday nights and even some Thursday night games when I had access. I'll watch extended highlights of 3-6 more games each week. After the Super Bowl, I mostly ignore the NFL. That includes the combine, the draft, the schedule release, training camp. By pre-season I'm paying a bit more attention, reading news and watching some footage. 

Eh.  That's certainly one end of the spectrum I suppose.  I will pay attention to the combine and definitely love the draft, but that's cuz I'm in many dynasty leagues where the rookie draft follows those.  But a bunch of hub-bub about announcing the next season's schedule?  Meh.

I understand where @chester is coming from, above, though... perhaps folks want to schedule trips to go see games out of state or even big home games.  That's understandable.  But the amount of coverage that the NFL-Network and Radio give it is pretty lame and certainly manufactured.  

[purplemonster]

On 5/11/2023 at 12:02 PM, darin3 said:

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else the whole "schedule release" stuff is nonsense?  It's all they're talking about on NFL-Network and NFL-Radio.  I mean, I love the NFL and all but who really cares when certain teams play?  The NFL just likes to be the center of the sports world year-round and this is just manufactured news to try and draw eyes in.  I couldn't care less.

I didn't necessarily care until they said "the best day of the year" for NFL fans is the day the schedule is released while advertising for it. Hyperbole much??

[irish]

On 5/11/2023 at 1:02 PM, darin3 said:

Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else the whole "schedule release" stuff is nonsense?  It's all they're talking about on NFL-Network and NFL-Radio.  I mean, I love the NFL and all but who really cares when certain teams play?  The NFL just likes to be the center of the sports world year-round and this is just manufactured news to try and draw eyes in.  I couldn't care less.

It's all they got this time of year, so they're just trying to keep viewership up. 

[darin3]

On 5/12/2023 at 4:48 PM, irish said:

It's all they got this time of year, so they're just trying to keep viewership up. 

Right, like I said:  manufactured hype.  And this is coming from a hugh NFL fan.  It just irks me that they are so obviously pushing this on us during a very down time for the league.  Just let it rest already.

[stevegrab]

On 5/12/2023 at 4:24 PM, darin3 said:

Eh.  That's certainly one end of the spectrum I suppose.  I will pay attention to the combine and definitely love the draft, but that's cuz I'm in many dynasty leagues where the rookie draft follows those.  But a bunch of hub-bub about announcing the next season's schedule?  Meh.

I understand where @chester is coming from, above, though... perhaps folks want to schedule trips to go see games out of state or even big home games.  That's understandable.  But the amount of coverage that the NFL-Network and Radio give it is pretty lame and certainly manufactured.  

The extra hype around sports and the hours of coverage and over analysis around things like a schedule, draft, or NCAA tournament bracket are what I have little interest in. I know CBS has has the tournament selection show for many years, but its overkill for me. 

Add in the leaks, the people trying to be first to report on things and such it just feels like more reality TV nonsense. 

[Gopher]

I understand why the NFL hypes the schedule the way they do (anything they can do to make a buck, they will). That said, I personally couldn't care less about it.  I've spent all of two minutes looking at it since it was announced. I know it's KC-DET to open the season, I know they added a Black Friday game (Jets-Buf?), and I spent about 50% of those two minutes looking at Minnesota's schedule.  Seriously contemplating going to Vegas on Dec 10th.  I haven't been to an NFL game in close to 15 years (I'd much rather watch on TV), but that sounds like a cool experience.  

I don't know..... For me, personally, other than being aware of bye weeks and such for fantasy purposes, I sort of like the idea of NOT knowing the schedule.  It's fun to just sort of see it unravel as the season progresses.  Not that I'm completely unaware of who plays who (if you pay attention at all, you're going to be aware of the epic matchups like KC-BUF, etc.), but I'm fine not knowing every detail about the schedule. 

Side note... The more I think (and hear) about the decision to showcase KC vs DET on opening night, the more I like it.  Opening week is the perfect time to show off the defending champ against what many would say is the #1 up-and-coming team in the league, based on last year's finish.  And, based on KC's schedule (assuming opening night was going to be one of their home games), Detroit makes as much sense as anybody else.  I hate the idea of divisional games being played in Week 1, and the idea of having a matchup like KC vs BUF, PHI, or CIN in Week 1 seems like a waste as well.  I'd rather see those games mid-season or later, when the teams are firing on all cylinders, so to speak.