2009 opponents

[axman40]

Houston
Home: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, N.Y. Jets, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle
Away: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, Arizona, St. Louis
The official 2009 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced in the spring.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

[gary]

I hope that we get another Monday night game next seasson.

[powerfuldragon]

why do we play oakland like every year?

[Goldensilence]

Originally Posted by powerfuldragon

why do we play oakland like every year?

So i can usually Harass all my Raider friends.

[Hervoyel]

Originally Posted by axman40

Houston
Home: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, N.Y. Jets, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle
Away: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, Arizona, St. Louis
The official 2009 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced in the spring.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

That is not a difficult schedule at all.

Starting with our divisional opponents (arguably the toughest teams we'll face next year) we have Indianapolis who we appear to be closing the gap with and would have split with had Sage not chosen that moment to fall apart on us, Tennessee who we did split with, and Jacksonville who we should have swept but for a glaring lack of defense that hopefully we're in the process of fixing.

I don' think that .500 in the division is asking too much. 3-3 should be a bare minimum expectation. 4-2 would be better of course.

Then at home we get:

New England and if you have to play New England its best to get them at home.
New York (Jets) who should be in the midst of changes
Oakland who still aren't good and we will no doubt be looking forward to paying back
San Francisco who are at best no better than our equals
Seattle who are again no better than our equals

There's not one "How are we going to beat them?" team in that group.

On the road we're playing:

Buffalo and a good team can go in there and beat them (so if we're "good"...)
Miami who will probably beat us for the first time ever
Cincinnati who suck and will be tougher at home but who are beatable
Arizona who seems to be turning a corner but who also underachieve regularly
St Louis who continue to suck year after year since Vermiel left.

We've had much worse schedules in our time.

[texanhead08]

Its because of our place in the final standings. You play a team from another division that finished the same place in the standing as said team.

[Drew_Smoke]

Prime Time football does not suck!!

[LonerATO]

Something tells me that SF will be a bad a** team next year under Samurai Mike

[Showtime100]

Originally Posted by LonerATO

Something tells me that SF will be a bad a** team next year under Samurai Mike

My wife is a Niner fan and we are going no doubt. Can't wait to meet as many of you as possible.

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Hervoyel

That is not a difficult schedule at all.

The Texans played probably their weakest schedule in 2005, when they had 8 games against teams with 6 or fewer wins. Remember what happened that season???

There are fans across the country chalking up an easy win for their teams when seeing the Texans on the schedule. Happens every year. More often than not, those fans are right. I really don't think the strength of schedule, or lack thereof, means squat. If the Texans are good enough to make the playoffs, they will win some big games against tough teams. If they don't, they will stay home for the 8th year in a row.

Looking at the lineup of teams to be played, I doubt Tennessee and Miami will have as good a season as 2008. I doubt Jacksonville and Seattle will play as poorly. Everything will even itself out, and the best teams will be in the playoffs. And if the Texans are there it will be because they are one of the best teams. Not because that had a gimme schedule.

[dalemurphy]

Originally Posted by Lucky

The Texans played probably their weakest schedule in 2005, when they had 8 games against teams with 6 or fewer wins. Remember what happened that season???

There are fans across the country chalking up an easy win for their teams when seeing the Texans on the schedule. Happens every year. More often than not, those fans are right. I really don't think the strength of schedule, or lack thereof, means squat. If the Texans are good enough to make the playoffs, they will win some big games against tough teams. If they don't, they will stay home for the 8th year in a row.

Looking at the lineup of teams to be played, I doubt Tennessee and Miami will have as good a season as 2008. I doubt Jacksonville and Seattle will play as poorly. Everything will even itself out, and the best teams will be in the playoffs. And if the Texans are there it will be because they are one of the best teams. Not because that had a gimme schedule.

Do you really think Arizona makes the playoffs if they played our schedule?

I agree that it's silly to overanalyze schedules but I am looking forward to a reasonable one. Starting this season at Pitt, at Tennessee, at Jacksonville and Indy was a brutal start and certainly impacted our chances.

[Hervoyel]

I know all this. It doesn't change the fact that this isn't an intimidating group of teams. Some games go the way you expect them to and others do not. That's every year no matter what. Looking at the list of opponents though in January of 2009 I'm hard pressed to find the negative side of this bunch.

[b0ng]

Originally Posted by axman40

Houston
Home: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, New England, N.Y. Jets, Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle
Away: Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, Arizona, St. Louis
The official 2009 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced in the spring.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

That schedule looks much more favorable than last years. Mostly because the road teams appear to be much easier than @Pittsburgh, @Minnesota, @GB appeared last season.

I mean going into this schedule we had a lot of games against teams that were pretty freaking good the year before. This year I think the teams to worry about are NE, MIA, SEA, and maybe STL. BUF is retaining their pretty mediocre coach, Cincy seems iffy about whether to fire Lewis or not. Plus their owner is pretty awful. I think SF really has nothing for offense and even under "Mad" Mike, he's still fairly inexperienced as an HC, so he might need a year to get everything down right.

This year more than ever, our divisional record will make or break us. We improved from a 1-5 where the 1 was a gimmie by the other team, this year we legitimately beat 2 of our division rivals (both at home). We increase that to 3-3 (just win the home games, not that hard) we have at least a decent chance of getting some kind of playoff hope (especially if we beat each team once). I think most of these teams would have to make big turnarounds, or we get screwed with a ton of road games to open, we should be at least okay.

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by dalemurphy

Starting this season at Pitt, at Tennessee, at Jacksonville and Indy was a brutal start and certainly impacted our chances.

Whether it's at the beginning, middle, or end of the season, those games must be played. The Texans weren't prepared to win those games, just as they weren't when Minnesota, Baltimore, Indy, and Oakland showed up on the schedule. What impacted the Texans chances was their play.

Had they played well in those games, the Texans would have won their share (not all) and had a very good chance to make the playoffs. Had the Texans played as they did, they could have faced the teams on the 2009 schedule instead, and still had the same 8-8 record. Eventually, you are what your record says you are.

[Thorn]

I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into predicting next year based on the schedule. Good teams can go bad quickly and bad teams can become good.

[kastofsna]

when you look at teams like Miami, Baltimore and Atlanta making ridiculous turn arounds in a season, it's pretty impossible to look ahead at this point and see which teams are going to be a tough challenge and which are beatable. plus there's that every-given-sunday thing, too

[mexican_texan]

Originally Posted by kastofsna

when you look at teams like Miami, Baltimore and Atlanta making ridiculous turn arounds in a season, it's pretty impossible to look ahead at this point and see which teams are going to be a tough challenge and which are beatable. plus there's that every-given-sunday thing, too

I'll go ahead and say the Niners will compete for the wildcard next year.


Woah woah woah, that schedule's wrong right? I don't see Cleveland there

[Txn_in_Oki]

Wife is from Saint Louis so I'm going try my damndest to make that my first Texans games.

Should be a serious ass whooping that I can rub in her face.

[ObsiWan]

I'm with Mex_Tex, I also look for SF to be one of next year's Cinderella stories like ATL and Miami were this year. A firey new coach (god I wish he'd been let go so he could be our DC) and quite a few young studs. The only thing they're unsure of is the QB spot.

Oh and I'm not calling Baltimore a Cinderella story because they finished 13-3 in 2006 and that defense was (is) still in place and they improved their running game.

[SheTexan]

Originally Posted by Thorn

I wouldn't put a whole lot of stock into predicting next year based on the schedule. Good teams can go bad quickly and bad teams can become good.

Never a truer statement! We see this happen every year. NO ONE thought Miami would be in the playoffs, or the Cards. You just never know what the new year will bring.

I'm looking forward to the NINER game more than any! Being a longtime NINER fan, except when they play the Texans, this will be the game of the year for me, regardless. My two fav teams on the field at the same time. Can't beat that!!!