2013 Texans Opponents

[HPF Bob]

One of the great things about the NFL is that you can quickly project next season's opponents by the end of the season.

We'll get home and homes with Tennessee, Jacksonville and Indianapolis. (six games).

We play the other AFC division winners: Denver, New England and Baltimore (three games).

We get the rest of the AFC West: Kansas City, San Diego and Oakland (three wins).

Then we get the NFC West as our interconference matchups: San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Arizona.

Sort of a shame that we wind up facing the NFC West when they might actually be good for a change but I suppose that is offset by the not-too-scary AFC West plus our own division.

I read on a Broncos board that the Broncos will play at Reliant so a guess of our unofficial 2013 schedule might look like this:

Home
-------
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Denver
Kansas City
New England
St. Louis
Arizona

Away
-------
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
San Diego
Oakland
Baltimore
San Francisco
Seattle

First blush, that looks like a 12-4 schedule and another AFC South crown.

[Nconroe]

quite a few trips westward next year.

Texans should be pretty darn good next year.

[Keith]

I think Bob's got the right opponents, just not the right home and away.

Home
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Denver
Oakland
St. Louis
Seattle
New England

Away
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Kansas City
San Diego
Arizona
San Francisco
Baltimore

I like this one better because I'd rather get Denver, NE, and Seattle all at our place rather than theirs where each is very tough at home. As road schedules go, this one isn't too bad.

fyi... looking ahead to 2014, there's a road trip to Dallas (er.... Arlington). Perhaps another Thanksgiving Day game is coming up...?

[HPF Bob]

Are the interconference matchups based on 1-thru-4 finish or where the teams played four years ago? Since the Texans hosted SF and SEA in 2009, I thought it stood to reason that we would have to travel to their place in 2013. Aren't season-ticket holders assured of seeing every NFL team at least once every eight years? I thought I'd heard that somewhere.

[Keith]

Wow, yeah, good point on the NFC rotation.

Conflicting info out there (looking at you, JohnnyRoadTrip.com), but yeah, Seattle was here and Arizona was there in 2009, so it would make sense for to be flipped in 2013. But even wikipedia has the Texans headed back to Arizona while the Seahawks play in Houston. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Houston_Texans_season

Also, based on the rotation theory, KC is an away game and Oakland is a home game for the Texans. The reverse was the case in 2010 when the AFC South last played the AFC West.

[Keith]

Ah, found this:

*The NFL announced that in future years, teams will travel to either Kansas City and San Diego OR to Oakland and Denver when playing the entire AFC West, and to San Francisco and Arizona OR to Seattle and St. Louis when playing the entire NFC West. The actual matchups have not yet been announced, so AFC West and NFC West opponents are subject to change. The actual match-ups have not yet been announced, so AFC West and NFC West opponents are subject to change.

NFL owners voted Monday to modify the schedule to ease the burden of cross-country road trips.

Last year, the Patriots and the Jets had to make West Coast trips to play AFC West opponents and NFC West teams. The Patriots chose to remain on the West Coast twice last season -- for back-to-back games against San Francisco and San Diego in October and Seattle and Oakland in December -- to minimize the wear-and-tear the schedule presented.

The Jets, meanwhile, played at San Diego and then had to travel to Oakland three weeks later. In December, New York visited San Francisco, returned home to play Buffalo, then went back to the coast to play Seattle. The Jets were upset by the Raiders as part of a late-season swoon that prevented them from making the playoffs.

Under the new plan, teams wouldn't have to visit two West Coast teams, just one, along with a team closer to the Midwest. Specifically, Oakland will be paired with Denver, and San Diego will be paired with Denver. In the NFC, Arizona and San Francisco will be paired as will St. Louis and Seattle.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4009230

Of course, shoddy reporting at the Worldwide, they made an error in this report, as shown in bold... that should be Kansas City there instead of Denver.

[HPF Bob]

Since this was written in 2009 for the 2010 season, the AFC West rotation should already be modeled for us.

Teams that have road games against Denver and Oakland will get home games against Kansas City and San Diego. The opposite scenario will also be true. The same format of home-and-away games with the paired cities holds true for the NFC as well.

In 2010, we played Oakland and Denver on the road (remember the Tebow game?)

2010 results from Pro Football Reference.com

Therefore, we should get Oakland and Denver at home, Kansas City and San Diego on the road. As for the NFC West, it's still an open question whether we get a road trip to SF or Seattle but apparently not both.

Two additional points:

1) It's just the coincidence that our rotation brought us the NFC West and the AFC West in the same season. This is apparently what happened to the NFC East in 2008 that prompted the changes.

2) While people might not be sympathetic about Houston flying to the west coast multiple times, the division also contains Jacksonville and Tennessee which are in the Eastern time zone (Indy might be too).

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

2) While people might not be sympathetic about Houston flying to the west coast multiple times...

I don't see what the hell the problem is.

-Jim Crane

[Joshua]

I get the time zone issues and acknowledge that there may be something to that, but the travel stuff is overblown in my opinion.

I don't recall where I heard it, but I heard someone ask a pretty funny question--Is there any other profession where a first class/chartered jet flight to a posh 5-star hotel where every possible thing you might need will be provided to you, largely free of charge and without you needing to do much more than ask, is discussed as if it is some horrific burden? Has anyone ever said that, for example, a businessman or a lawyer was understandably not at his best today because he had to take a first class flight into town the day before and stay in a suite at the Four Seasons?

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Joshua

I get the time zone issues and acknowledge that there may be something to that, but the travel stuff is overblown in my opinion.

I don't recall where I heard it, but I heard someone ask a pretty funny question--Is there any other profession where a first class/chartered jet flight to a posh 5-star hotel where every possible thing you might need will be provided to you, largely free of charge and without you needing to do much more than ask, is discussed as if it is some horrific burden? Has anyone ever said that, for example, a businessman or a lawyer was understandably not at his best today because he had to take a first class flight into town the day before and stay in a suite at the Four Seasons?

You have to remember that the impetus for all of this was the Patriots who can't look at a picture of the beach without getting sand in their collective vagina.

[HPF Bob]

A flight to KC or STL shouldn't be that taxing but taking a trip from the East Coast to Phoenix or Denver isn't feel that much better than traveling to Seattle or San Diego.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by chuck

You have to remember that the impetus for all of this was the Patriots who can't look at a picture of the beach without getting sand in their collective vagina.

This is true. The east coast bias is in full play here. The AFC East may not offer a midwest alternative (as Miami, Buffalo, NJ, and Foxboro are all near the eastern coast) and the NFC East has just one (Arlington), so why the West division has to give up any geographical advantage here is lame.

Honestly though, had the NFL set this up this way from the beginning (i.e. the initial 8-year cycle of 2002-2009), then this would all be moot.

[WMH]

Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) tweeted:
Texans 2013 regular season opponents are set already: (Home) DEN, OAK, STL, SEA, NE, IND, TEN, JAX (Road) KC, SD, AZ, SF, BAL, IND, TEN, JAX

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by WMH

Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) tweeted:
Texans 2013 regular season opponents are set already: (Home) DEN, OAK, STL, SEA, NE, IND, TEN, JAX (Road) KC, SD, AZ, SF, BAL, IND, TEN, JAX

That's huge because SF is a much better road team than Seattle if you judge them on this year's results. I'm sticking with 12-4 for now.

[HPF Bob]

2013 Schedules get released in about an hour, To recap:

Home:
Indy
Tennessee
Jacksonville
Denver
Oakland
New England
Seattle
St. Louis

Road:
Indy
Tennessee
Jacksonville
Kansas City
San Diego
Baltimore
Arizona
San Francisco

[Nconroe]

From USA today - and other sites
One Monday Night game, One Thursday Night and several Sunday Night plus options to more. bye a little early. could be tough opening month, but we will know how good we are by mid Oct. for sure.

2013 schedule (All times ET)

Sept. 9: at San Diego Chargers, 10:20 p.m.

Sept. 15: vs. Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m.

Sept. 22: at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m.

Sept. 29: vs. Seattle Seahawks, 1 p.m.

Oct. 6: at San Francisco 49ers, 8:30 p.m.

Oct. 13: vs. St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m.

Oct. 20: at Kansas City Chiefs, 1 p.m.

Oct. 27: Bye

Nov. 3: vs. Indianapolis Colts, 8:30 p.m.

Nov. 10: at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m.

Nov. 17: vs. Oakland Raiders, 1 p.m.

Nov. 24: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m.

Dec. 1: vs. New England Patriots, 4:25 p.m.

Dec. 5: at Jacksonville Jaguars, 8:25 p.m.

Dec. 15: at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m.

Dec. 22: vs. Denver Broncos, 1 p.m.

Dec. 29: at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Nconroe

Sept. 22: at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m.
Sept. 29: vs. Seattle Seahawks, 1 p.m.
Oct. 6: at San Francisco 49ers, 8:30 p.m.
Oct. 13: vs. St. Louis Rams, 1 p.m.

Wow, this will be a telling 4-week stretch.

[WMH]

Disappointed we only got 1 home prime time game, but other than that......whatever.

Leggo!

[HPF Bob]

Only one game that could potentially be cold weather - late at Tennessee. Earlier I said it looked like 12-4 but now that the schedule is out, I could see 10-6 with potential losses at SD, at Baltimore, at San Francisco, vs. New England, at Indianapolis (it's our tradition now) and vs Denver.

Of course, a lot can change but, on paper, this isn't as good a team as last year. We'll see if the draft and a few late FA moves changes that.

[cadams]

Originally Posted by WMH

Disappointed we only got 1 home prime time game, but other than that......whatever.

Leggo!

have the pats @3:15 at home. that will pretty much be like a primetime game, and the denver game could easily get flexed.