2012 NFL Best / Worst Football Games

Here's our view on the Best & Worst (or not so good games) for the upcoming NFL football season. Best games 1. -  (Sunday, Sept. 9): It's fair to say that all eyes will be on this one as quarterback Peyton Manning is expected to make his return to the NFL. An injury cost him all of the 2011 season and forced a departure from Indianapolis as the Colts decided to rebuild. The question now is whether the Colts were a little hasty in their decision as Manning tries to show he's healthy again after four reported neck surgeries, including a procedure to fuse two vertebrae. Meanwhile, the Steelers open the new season at the same site of last year's playoff debacle against the then Tim Tebow-led Broncos. 2. -  (Sunday, Nov. 18): As a point of reference, there aren't a lot of division games mentioned in this spot for a specific reason: You could fill the entire "best" section with divisional battles, be it this one or Green Bay-Chicago or New England-New York Jets or whatever other traditional rivalry you like. However, there is something transcendent, almost medieval, about the Steelers and the Ravens going at it. It's football the way purists love, from the hard hitting of the defenses to Ben Roethlisberger's and Joe Flacco's slinging throws. As it stands today, this is the best rivalry game in football. Someday that will change. Until then, enjoy this one.

3. -  (Sunday, Oct. 7): Assuming that Manning is healthy, the NFL gets another episode of one of the great rivalries of this era. From 2001 to 2009, when Manning and New England quarterback Tom Brady combined to win six AFC titles and four Super Bowls, their teams faced off 12 times. That included three playoff games. New England has beaten Manning eight times in the Brady era. In addition, seven of the past nine games between Manning and the Patriots have been decided by a touchdown or less. Of course, New England has a couple of other good ones, such as hosting San Francisco and playing at Baltimore in a rematch of the AFC title game. 4. -  (Sunday, Dec. 16): There's usually something special about a Steelers-Cowboys game, although it's not always immediately evident. For instance, the last time they played in 2008, the comeback win by Pittsburgh (17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter) marked the beginning of the end for the relationship between Terrell Owens and the Cowboys. In 2004, the Steelers rallied for 14 points in the fourth quarter in a comeback win, the first come-from-behind victory for then-rookie Ben Roethlisberger. Over the years, the teams have played to a 15-15 split, including three Super Bowl matchups. 5. -  (Thursday, Nov. 22): If you're looking for a game that features two up-and-coming teams that could vault into Super Bowl contention, look no further. The Texans believe they took a huge step last year by improving their defense. Now, they just have to keep quarterback Matt Schaub healthy. Similarly, the Lions discovered they can have a dominant offense with quarterback Matthew Stafford playing a full season for the first time last year. Now, they have to get the defense on track behind the likes of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. 6. -  (Sunday, Oct. 7): The last time former teammates Drew Brees and Philip Rivers faced off in 2008, they combined to complete 55 of 81 passes for 680 yards, six touchdown passes and one interception. New Orleans won 37-32. Expect this game, which will feature the subplots of Sean Payton's suspension and Norv Turner being under pressure, to be just as entertaining. 7. -  (Sunday, Nov. 25): You have to think that the Packers are still stinging from their playoff loss to the Giants at home in January. It was Green Bay's worst performance all season as it dropped eight passes and quarterback Aaron Rodgers missed two wide-open throws. The Giants dominated the game even after losing to the Packers in the regular season. This rematch will be tasty. 8. -  (Sunday, Nov. 25): If you want to talk about bitter pills, the entire Saints offseason has been awful and it started in the fourth quarter at San Francisco, when former defensive coordinator Gregg "Bounty" Williams watched his unit completely implode. Perhaps Williams, who instructed his players to do harm in a pregame speech, just wasn't paying enough. Either way, Saints fans still think the game would have been different in The Big Easy. Of course, the Saints also get to face Green Bay and the Giants again in the regular season, so the 49ers game is one of the many fun ones. 9. -  (Monday, Nov. 26): Dear Cam Newton, before you take the field, go take a good look at the beaten up body of Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. That should serve as a cruel reminder of how important it is to be a pass-first quarterback. Yeah, Vick is still a phenomenal athlete, but he's not what he once was. Newton, who got off to a great start as a passer last season as a rookie, is the next big thing of the NFL right now. If he gets away from that and becomes too much of a runner … oh well. 10. -  (Sunday, Dec. 9): In a salute to the presidential election, the Beltway Bowl is held every four years between the Redskins. Sadly, the election is usually a lot more entertaining than the football game. However, that could change this year with the addition of Robert Griffin III to the Redskins lineup, assuming he goes to Washington next week with the NFL draft's No. 2 pick. Watching Griffin against the great Ravens defense could be really fascinating stuff.   Worst games 1. -  (Sunday, Sept. 9): The Vikings and Jaguars ranked No. 1 and No. 4, respectively, in the dubious category of overpaying for particular free agents, according to this analysis, and I can't disagree. If you're going to spend that kind of money, you should get better than a guy who flopped one place and a guy who produced only one good year out of five. Worse, both teams did very little to help their young, developing quarterbacks, which is just sad when you consider that each spent a first-round draft pick in 2011 on Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder, respectively. The best formula for making a quarterback play better is to surround him with better people. 2. -  (Sunday, Dec. 2): Sure, there's plenty of reason to be curious about how Andrew Luck is going to do in Indianapolis as he follows Peyton Manning. However, this game isn't likely to produce a lot of highlights. More likely, expect Detroit to put up about 45 points in what will be a lopsided win and a reminder that the Colts still have a long way to go to get back to what they were. Simply put, the Lions are a couple of years ahead of where the Colts hope to be one day. 3. -  (Sunday, Nov. 11): Lest the people of Jacksonville think I'm favoring the Dolphins (for whatever reason), fear not. Miami faces many great challenges these days. Right now, things are so bad in Magic City that the Dolphins might want to hire Ozzie Guillen away from the Marlins just to stir things up. Just kidding, my many Cuban-American friends. But let's face facts: The Dolphins have a home schedule that will be almost impossible to sell to the public. Aside from the traditional AFC East games, the Dolphins host the Titans, St. Louis, Oakland, Seattle and Jacksonville. There are people on the management side who wonder if they'll have more than 35,000 people at some of those games. 4. -  (Sunday, Nov. 25): It's not every day that you get a potential matchup of a former Harvard quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick) against a former Stanford quarterback (Luck). Then again, there's a reason for that. Moreover, if that's the most interesting thing you can say about this game, there's a lot of work to be done by the marketing people. 5. -  (Sunday, Dec. 16): Another game featuring a pair of young, struggling quarterbacks on some young, struggling teams. Yeah, there's hope for both the Vikings and the Rams. But that hope is at least two years away from being realized.

Tweet

Here is your opportunity to stop hating the media and actually become it!
We are always looking for additional people to submit stories, scores, stats, photos, video, etc...