Each year when the NFL season gets under way just about every sports journalist and fan out there starts making predictions from which team will have a "breakout" season to which team will win the Super Bowl. No, I won't be doing this today. (I already made my AFC and NFC "Division Results" entries a while back, and I can't wait to see how wrong my predictions turn out.) I'm going to try something different.

This year, starting with Week 10, instead of having a pre-determined Sunday Night game penciled in the NFL schedule months before Week 1's opening kick-off, the league will wait until 12 days before determining which match-ups get a prime-time slot. (Week 17’s game of the week will only be announced 6 days prior.)

What I’m going to do in this entry is guess each Week’s Sunday Night game. Below are the match-ups for all Sunday games for Weeks 10-13. (I’ll do Weeks 14-17 in a future entry.) At the end of each week’s list of games I’ll make my prediction along with some spur-of-the-moment thoughts.

Week 10:

 

Baltimore at Tennessee

Buffalo at Indianapolis

Chicago at N.Y. Giants

Cleveland at Atlanta

Green Bay at Minnesota

Houston at Jacksonville

Kansas City at Miami

New Orleans at Shittsburgh

N.Y. Jets at New England

San Diego at Cincinnati

San Francisco at Detroit

Washington at Philadelphia

Denver at Oakland

Dallas at Arizona

St. Louis at Seattle

Chicago at N.Y. Giants might be a classic “defense (Chicago) v. offense (New York)” match-up, as could be the Kansas City at Miami game. San Diego at Cincinnati looks to be a good one to watch, also. We also have Washington at Philadelphia, but I have a feeling one of those teams will be in the crapper by this time and pretty much out of playoff contention. (In addition, NBC will be airing these games, not ESPN.) I’d like to see San Diego at Cincinnati, but because of the media bias factor I’ll go with Chicago at New York.

Week 11:

 

Atlanta at Baltimore

Buffalo at Houston

Chicago at N.Y. Jets

Cincinnati at New Orleans

Indianapolis at Dallas

Minnesota at Miami

New England at Green Bay

Oakland at Kansas City

Shittsburgh at Cleveland

St. Louis at Carolina

Tennessee at Philadelphia

Washington at Tampa Bay

Detroit at Arizona

Seattle at San Francisco

San Diego at Denver

Atlanta at Baltimore might be interesting. (Can Ray Lewis chase down Michael Vick?) However, will both teams be worth watching by Week 11? Indianapolis at Dallas looks like it has potential. Minnesota at Miami: Daunte’s return! Washington at Tampa Bay would be a return to a Wild Card game from last year. San Diego at Denver would make for a nice inter-division game. If Minnesota becomes a surprise team, I could see them airing Minnesota at Miami in prime-time, but I’m going with the safe pick: Indianapolis at Dallas.

Week 12:

 

Arizona at Minnesota

Carolina at Washington

Chicago at New England

Cincinnati at Cleveland

Houston at N.Y. Jets

Jacksonville at Buffalo

New Orleans at Atlanta

N.Y. Giants at Tennessee

Philadelphia at Indianapolis

Shittsburgh at Baltimore

San Francisco at St. Louis

Oakland at San Diego

Carolina at Washington and Chicago at New England are both in the running this week. So are Philadelphia at Indianapolis and Shittsburgh at Baltimore. This week also shows why the NFL went with this “flex” scheduling. I’m certain that all eight teams mentioned above will not be in playoff contention. So instead of taking a chance of New England having an off-year with all the players they lost this past off-season, or praying Carolina doesn’t get hit with the injury (or steroid) bug, it makes more sense to wait 12 days before this week’s games to determine which game would appeal most to a nationwide audience. Because I’m making my selection three months in advance rather than a dozen days, I’m going with Carolina at Washington because both teams were in the playoffs last year, and each franchise won at least one game during their time in the postseason.

Week 13:

 

Arizona at St. Louis

Atlanta at Washington

Dallas at N.Y. Giants

Detroit at New England

Indianapolis at Tennessee

Jacksonville at Miami

Kansas City at Cleveland

Minnesota at Chicago

N.Y. Jets at Green Bay

San Diego at Buffalo

San Francisco at New Orleans

Tampa Bay at Shittsburgh

Houston at Oakland

Seattle at Denver

Atlanta at Washington? Nah. Dallas at New York looks like a contender. Jacksonville at Miami – the battle of Florida. Minnesota at Chicago might be a big one if both teams manage to win outside the NFC North. Tampa Bay at Shittsburgh and Seattle at Denver features both Super Bowl teams squaring off against a playoff opponent from last year, albeit from the other conference. I think Jacksonville at Miami might be a sleeper pick, but once again I’m going with the safer Seattle at Denver.

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