The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of the NFL Schedule Release
Get Those Passports Renewed: For the 1st time since 2019, the Houston Texans will leave the country. Confirmed before the official release of the schedule, the Houston Texans are returning to England in Week 6. Their opponent: The Jacksonville Jaguars. The Glitter
Kitties will be the home team for this matchup. Actually, it will be the second consecutive overseas home-game for them, which should be an advantage, given their clocks will be more adjusted than Houston’s. Then again, Houston’s last overseas matchup was against said Jaguars. That went pretty well for the Battle Red.
Speaking of Travel…: Whether it was the NFL, the Texans or a mutual decision, Houston will not take the bye week after their game in England. They will return home for a dance with the New York Giants of New Jersey, or the New Jersey Giants of New York (whichever your preference). Either way, this could be a tricky stretch for the Texans, as Houston will be trying to get their body clocks back on Central Time, after playing a big divisional matchup, against a tricky opponent in the Giants. This screams trap game.
Need to get off to a good start: Houston gets 3 of its first 4 at home. However, the matchups are: Bills, Bengals, Cowboys. Not exactly the easiest way to fit into a season. An 0-3 start this year, with 8 road games after that stretch, will not get it done for Houston this year. And speaking of that stretch, all of those games are slated for 12:00 p.m Central Time Kickoffs. The Bills and Cowboys alone should have probably warranted a primetime slot. At least those games have the likelihood for national level coverage.
Thursday Nights are Texans’ Nights: Houston gets four state-side stand-alone/primetime matchups. However, two of those (Indy, at Philly) are Thursday Nighters. Both are short-turnarounds. Given Houston’s 1-2 record in Thursday Night matchups under Ryans, and given the specific matchups, not sure the NFL is doing the Texans any favors here. Then again, the schedule makers do give Houston a nice break between the Week 16 Eagles game and Monday Night Week 17 Matchup against the Packers at Green Bay. Speaking of the second Thursday Night Game…
An Early Christmas Gift or the Nightmare Before Christmas? With the NFL looking to dominate all aspects of the calendar that they possibly can, they are giving Amazon a Christmas Eve game. The result: Houston travels to Philadelphia. A tough, physical game, with a lot of hitting, a lot of talking, and high likelihood of fighting is likely to happen. As for what will happen on the field…well, two physical defenses…yeah, expect a lot of medical supplies to be in the stockings of these players (and the fans) Christmas morning. That is, if Santa Claus can survive the expected aerial assault of batteries and (possible) snowballs. Oh, and remember, no Houston-based NFL team has ever beaten the Eagles. Gulp
Social Media Super Bowl: The schedule release has not only become another marker on the NFL calendar, but it also presents an opportunity a franchise’s social media departments to showcase their talents. Why just post a screenshot of the schedule when you can put together a short presentation of some sort, one that would fit well on most modern social media platforms? This really has only become a thing in the post-COVID era, but when more people rely on Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, etc to get their news, may as well go where the people are. Some teams have better reputations than others for social media content associated with the schedule release. The Chargers usually lead off in most schedule release videos, and they did. The Texans? They tend to live in the middle of the pack in this department. Their most recent fare? Definitely local flavor. Leave it to you to decide what you should think of it:
FUN WITH NUMBERS
1-1: Houston’s Record in International Games. The Week 6 tilt in England will be Houston’s third overseas game. Their first was in 2016, when they lost in a controversial game against the-then Oakland Raiders 30-27 in Mexico City. In 2019, they went East vs. South, travelling to England for some tea and crumpets, with a Boddington’s Ale Chaser and a 26-3 beatdown of the Glitter Kitties from Jacksonville.
7-10: Houston Texans’ all-time record on Thursdays. So, of course in a major make-or-break season, Houston has to play two Thursday Night Games. Maybe a split won’t be all that bad.
GAME BALLS
Royalties: If your team leveraged a known show/game/persona to announce your team’s schedule, it may or may not have hit with you. That being said, likely the show/game/persona (or estate of said persona) received some nice funding in their royalty checks for this month. Plus, they also got the leverage of the NFL for a nice boost (not that some of them needed it). At least Houston saved some money on this one, since it was but one actor and no outside animation/etc.
NBA Playoff Schedule Makers: Don’t know if they intended this or not, but none of their conference semifinal matchups were forced to compete with the NFL schedule release. A few hockey games did, but you saw how most of them didn’t come close to leading off the sports websites. Nope, it was all about the analysis of the NFL schedule. Who won, who lost and all of that. Any questions about the domination of the NFL on the American sports/pop culture scene?
Indianapolis Colts Self-Awareness: The Colts went with a full Simpsons theme, probably paying a metric ton’s worth of money to the Disney overlords. In said video, the Colts made plenty of snide references to other teams, but they did not shy away from the fact that they haven’t won in Jacksonville since Andrew Luck was a young promising QB. Indicating the number of days since their last win, and using the classic Homer scene of him fading into the bushes, well, have to give some credit for that one.
SHOULD BE FORCED TO SPEND THE REST OF THE OFF-SEASON TRYING TO BOOST THE SOCIAL MEDIA PROSPECTS OF JACK EASTERBY AND DIANA RUSSINI
Mike Vrabel/Dianna Russini: They caught a few strays from teams in their schedule releases. One would hope that it is all dead by preseason. Granted, Vrabel is going to catch some well-deserved hell for his indiscretions. I can just imagine how the Seattle crowd is going to be when the Patriots face off at the Seahawks for the NFL’s kickoff game. Hope that one day of counseling helped.
With the schedule known, we move further into the abyss of the offseason. While there are a few mandatory camps for rookies and some mini-camps for the whole team in June, for all intents and purposes, we are in the “Dead Zone” of the NFL. However, the good news is that we are moving closer to training camp, preseason and then, the for realz football!!! So, something to look forward to even in this meh time
