The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here! Actually, it's the 2007 NFL Schedule.
The NFL released the 2007 schedule today, and everybody's going nuts over it. I'm not really sure why, though. With the eight division set up, 14 out of the 16 opponents are known literally years in advance. Only the last two opponents are determined by a team's record, and we knew them back in December. Still, it's fun to look at the Bears' schedule and start identifying the wins and losses. First off, here's the schedule.
WK DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET)
1 Sun, Sep 9 at San Diego 4:15 PM
2 Sun, Sep 16 Kansas City 4:15 PM
3 Sun, Sep 23 Dallas 8:15 PM
4 Sun, Sep 30 at Detroit 1:00 PM
5 Sun, Oct 7 at Green Bay 8:15 PM
6 Sun, Oct 14 Minnesota 1:00 PM
7 Sun, Oct 21 at Philadelphia 4:15 PM
8 Sun, Oct 28 Detroit 1:00 PM
9 BYE WEEK
10 Sun, Nov 11 at Oakland 4:15 PM
11 Sun, Nov 18 at Seattle 8:15 PM
12 Sun, Nov 25 Denver 1:00 PM
13 Sun, Dec 2 NY Giants 4:15 PM
14 Thu, Dec 6 at Washington 8:15 PM
15 Mon, Dec 17 at Minnesota 8:30 PM
16 Sun, Dec 23 Green Bay 1:00 PM
17 Sun, Dec 30 New Orleans 1:00 PM
Much tougher than last year, that's for sure. But what do you expect when you have to play the NFC East and AFC West in the same season? Five night games, too. Wow.
The season starts off with three straight tough games. Luckily, the latter two are at Soldier Field so I would think they should win at least two of those three. Following that, five of the next six opponents should be a cakewalk (only the road game in Philly should pose any threat). Yes, there's some tough division games in there, but anything less than 4-2 over that stretch would be an upset. Then, starting the week before Thanksgiving, they've got the toughest sequence of the year: @Seattle, Denver, NYG, @Wash, @Minn. Then the last two are nothing to sneeze at either in GB & the Saints. The potential good news is that if the Bears can zip through those teams, they should be in great shape for another extended postseason run. The potential bad news is they can start out 8-1 or 7-2 and then slump down the stretch to back into the playoffs.
I'll go with a happy medium. Bears go 12-4 and clinch the division in week 15.
Bear down.