The NFL released the nationally-televised games for Week 1 of the year, and for the third consecutive season, the Broncos will open the year out of the coast-to-coast limelight.
For now, however, we can deduce some potential scenarios for the Broncos’ season-opening game.
1. The Broncos can’t face any of the teams whose openers were announced Monday. This rules out starting the season against the San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts or Chicago Bears.
2. The Broncos can only be at home against an NFC opponent. This is because CBS traditionally does not carry any late afternoon games during the second weekend of September, owing to their coverage of the mens’ singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships. Since the NFL has never scheduled the Broncos for a regular-season game beginning at 11 a.m., this rules out the Broncos’ six home games against AFC foes — three against their division rivals, two against AFC South opponents Tennessee and Jacksonville and one against the Pittsburgh Steelers. This leaves the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings as the only potential opponents for a season-opening home game.
3. The Broncos cannot play a road game against a team in the Mountain or Pacific time zones. Again, this owes to CBS’ U.S. Open coverage. So say goodbye to being the opposition for Lane Kiffin’s first game as head coach of the Oakland Raiders.
This leaves the following possibilities for the Broncos’ Week 1 game:
vs. Green Bay
vs. Minnesota
at Detroit
at Kansas City
at Buffalo
at Houston
The league also announced its Thanksgiving games, and the Broncos learned they will not play on Thanksgiving for the first time since the 2004 season. Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday, meaning the Broncos will not play on one of the two major holidays for the first time since 2003.
WEEK 1 GAMES THAT HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED:
Sept. 6: New Orleans at Indianapolis – NBC – 6:30 p.m. MST
Sept. 9: Chicago at San Diego – FOX – 2:15 p.m. MST
Sept. 9: N.Y. Giants at Dallas – NBC – 6:15 PM MST
Sept. 10: Baltimore at Cincinnati – ESPN – 5 p.m. MST
Sept. 10:Arizona at San Francisco – ESPN – 8:15 p.m. MST
The full schedule will be released in April.
Tags: 2007 season
I am happy actually I always thought that the thanksgiving game hurt the broncos we had to quickly right after a hard game usually so we can rest like everybody else. Also not being in the lime light for the first week it’s alright with me stay quiet and win the games nobody sees but the hard core fans then when it’s prime time bam !! everybody will say I didn’t know the broncos were that good dang were in trouble !
I feel the same way, It seems that every T-Day were getting a tough game with short prep.But the Cowboys game was VERRY goood!
You can take the two home games off the list. We are always AWAY on on WEEK 1. Not always, but it sure feels like it when you lose the first game two years in a row.
Let’s get the hardest away game in our division of the year out of the way against Kansas City.That way we can gage ourselves against what seems to be our biggest opponent every year…Even if we lose it will be easier to get back up on top even if we go 0-1…
I agree that we can rule out the two home games because they will not want to play at home at 11:00 AM. I think that we should rule out the Detroit game because Javon won’t want a repeat of ’05. We shouldn’t play a divisional game against KC the first game of the year. You know how that will go. We shouldn’t play in Texas till November because it is just way to hot.
So…
That leaves a nice little trip to a depletted Buffalo team when the weather is nice. (No snow flying!) Maybe we could win the first one that way? Sounds about right, HUH?
I agree with the last post. Lets go to Buffalo and unleash Travis Henry on them. I’m sure he could deal out some payback. Throw in a few picks by Champ Bailey and Dre Bley and what a way to start the year. Don’t forget to get that NFL Sunday Ticket subscription renewed cause it’s gonna be a great year for the Denver Broncos.
Go Broncos
[...] Andrew Mason has done a wonderful job narrowing down the possibilities of what the opening week opponent will be for the Broncos, based on the earlier announcement of the prime time games that week (which Denver will not be a part of) and other factors. Out of that list, I think I would prefer a home game against Minnesota. The Vikings appear to be a team that’s on the slide and could be a way to get the season started off on a positive note. Furthermore, the Broncos have opened on the road the past two seasons, and it could be time to open at home. [...]