Steelers' Schedule Set...

by Michael Bean on Apr 11, 2007 5:01 PM EDT in News

The schedules of all 32 NFL teams are out. Let's take a look at the Steelers' 2007 opponents:

Sep 9 @Cleveland 1:00pm
Sep 16 Buffalo 1:00pm
Sep 23 San Francisco 1:00pm
Sep 30 @Arizona 4:15pm
Oct 7 Seattle 1:00pm
Week 6 BYE
Oct 21 @Denver 8:15pm
Oct 28 @Cincinnati 1:00pm
Nov 5 Baltimore 8:30pm
Nov 11 Cleveland 1:00pm
Nov 18 @N.Y. Jets 1:00pm
Nov 26 Miami 8:30pm
Dec 2 Cincinnati 8:15pm
Dec 9 @New England 1:00pm
Dec 16 Jacksonville 1:00pm
Dec 20 @St. Louis 8:15pm
Dec 30 @Baltimore 1:00pm

Couple of notes about the schedule:

What a nice stretch to start the season. Nothing is a given of course in this league, but a 5-0 or 4-1 start is very much conceivable. Compare that with the first 5 games of last year: Miami, @ JAX, Cincinnati, @ SD, KC.
What a great month Novemeber is going to be. Thanksgiving, the return of college basketball, and three Steeler home games--two of which are on Monday Night! Leaving aside the entertainment factor for us fans, it's important to be playing good football heading into the month of December. Since home teams rarely lose on MNF, I'm optimistic that we should be in good shape heading into the home stretch. Combined with our two Sunday Night primetime appearances against Denver and Cincinnati, plus our Thursday night game againstSt. Louis, the Steelers will be on national television 5 times this year.
Speaking of that final month--it's brutal. First we play Cincy in a game that will have playoff implications for both AFC North teams, at New England, home against a Jaguars team that always plays us tough, at St. Louis where the Rams are infinitely better than they are on the road, and at Baltimore. Let's hope our playoff chances don't come down to that last contest against the Ravens.

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Comments

I agree

they had better get off to a good start because really the last 7 games will be a real test. We also have a pretty tough road schedule having to go to Denver, NYJ, and NE. Should be very interesting.

by cgolden on Apr 11, 2007 5:43 PM EDT reply actions

easy start

that's really important for us especially with all the changes we've had. also its nice that we don't have an early bye like we usually get.

by schnifin on Apr 11, 2007 5:48 PM EDT reply actions

Bye Week..

Yeah, not bad. Definitely better than Week 3, perhaps not as good as Week 8, but then again, it's going to be nice to have an extra week to get ready for back-to-back road games at Denver and Cincy.

I agree with you cgolden, tough road games, but Denver isn't as solid as they have been the past 5 years. The Jets are solid, but I don't really think they're an AFC playoff caliber team. Their schedule last year down the stretch was absolute cake.

by Michael Bean on Apr 11, 2007 9:23 PM EDT reply actions

blitz

why do you say denver isn't as solid? I think they'll be pretty good w/ Cutler having some experience under his belt.

by schnifin on Apr 11, 2007 10:09 PM EDT reply actions

Well,

I still think they're in the top half of the AFC no doubt, but I don't think their offensive line is nearly as good and consistent as it was from the late '90s up till basically the last couple of years. It used to be next to impossible to beat Denver at Mile High, even with Plummer being as erratic as he was, mainly because they were so dominant running the football. And, yes Cutler has got a little seasoning on him, but not much. 5 games? Maybe even just 4, I'll have to check.

Maybe it's just my hatred of the Broncos that is making me biased.

by Michael Bean on Apr 11, 2007 10:38 PM EDT reply actions

At first glance

At first glance this is how I rank our opponents--

New England
Cincinnati
Baltimore
Denver
Jax
St. Louis
Seattle
NY Jets
Buffalo
SF
Arizona
Miami
Cleveland

There are a lot of questions with our team this year, but if Ben can fight off all the problems from last year (which I believe stemmed from his horrible off-season problems and his concussion against ATL), Parker & Holmes can continue to develop, and our D can somehow improve (big if I know); I'm optimistically saying 12-4. I see a decline from Baltimore (not sold on McGahee). I think Cincy will really be the toughest in our division this year.

"It's time to plant some seeds. What that means is, hit them in the mouth. Ya know, plant some seeds. Show 'em what time it is." --Levon Kirkland

by steelerinchicago on Apr 12, 2007 2:22 PM EDT reply actions

Damn SIC

Well, you are THE MAN who won 10k playing fantasy football, so you your opinions have lots of weight, but 12-4 seems pretty damn optimistic. If we can beat the Brownies twice, take care of Buffalo, SF, MIA and SEA at home, we'd just need to sneak a couple road wins in there to get to 11 or 12 wins. I'm going to say 10-6 at worst for us this year.

Can you believe that we were a win against Oakland away from making the playoffs last year?? Obviously lots of teams can point back to one game and say, 'if we won that game, we'd have been ok', but it was friggin Oakland, and we didn't even surrender 100 yards.

Still, I'm not ready to declare us a 12 win team in 2007. Only five teams won 12 games last year: San Diego, Baltimore, New England, Chicago and Indianapolis. Two met in the Super Bowl, NE played for a right to go to the Super Bowl, and SD and Baltimore both played in the Divisional Round.

I think our schedule sets up nicely to potentially win 11 or 12 games, but after what we saw last year from not just Big Ben, but from our defense as well, I think it's a bit early to say we're going to be one of the top 5 teams in the NFL.

I think we can be, but I'm just taking a different approach heading into this season: we're the underdogs again, not the ones being chased. I'm thankful for that, because I think there's lots of guys on our team (ben most importantly) who seem to play better when they've got something to prove.

by Michael Bean on Apr 13, 2007 1:42 AM EDT reply actions