2008 Schedule

[Joshua]

First off, nice to be back with the HPF brethren.

As for the schedule, I don't like the first month (and a week) at all. In my opinion, football teams (particularly young teams which haven't had a lot of success) thrive on momentum and confidence. I was hoping we would get either a majority of home games or easy road games (to the extent that such a thing exists) to start off the season and hopefully help the guys build up some confidence. I also hoped any early division games would be at home (and not against Indy) because we have to improve our division record. Unfortunately, we got none of these things. Now, I'm concerned that we could start the season 1-4 (and 0-3 in the division) and it could have a serious impact on the team's psyche. Hopefully, this won't happen but the early schedule does look daunting.

Agree that October is a time we need to capitalize on. Also agree that the timing of the bye week appears to be good, but you never know when injuries will pop up (and they always seem to for this team).

November is another tough stretch, but I like the way December is set up. 3 home games and 2 road games which could be winnable. If we can weather the September and November storms (and not screw up October), that should put them in the driver's seat down the stretch to make a playoff run.

Finally, with regard to things we must do better this year, I'll add turnovers on both sides of the ball. Offense has to quit coughing it up so much and the D has to generate more. I haven't pulled the stats, but I seem to recall stats every year that the playoff-bound teams invariably have positive turnover ratings.