Thursday NFL Analysis

Welcome to my first NFL column of the year. Each week, my focus will largely be on cash game lineups for the main slate, but I will also offer a quick glimpse into the Thursday/Monday slate for all of you that just can’t get enough of the NFL each weekend. Generally speaking, I try to avoid the Thursday night games as much as possible during the season. We tend to see some really brutal football on Thursday nights and it reminds me a lot of weeknight sex once you are married. Yes, you are usually happy that it took place. Yes, it was usually better than the alternatives. Yes, it was usually less than memorable and nobody gave it their best effort. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some Week 1 action.

Out of the gates, we definitely need to at least consider this slate the first week for a few important reasons. The biggest issue that tends to drag the Thursday game down at later points in the season is that the players come in on short rest. In talking to several players over the years who have described the experience of a 16 game season, you start to hear the same things again and again particularly from the big men. The day after the game, most of the players are in rest mode. They come in, jump into the ice bath, stretch out, get a massage or physical therapy, put in a lift if they’re up for it, watch game film from the previous day and head out. Tuesday is usually an off day with many of the skill players coming in to get some work and study some film for the following weekend. Wednesday is when the real preparation starts for the game on Sunday and it progresses from there. You can see that in wiping out three days of prep time, it really makes a mess out of the process for players and coaches. However, with this being the first week of the season, not only are the players all well rested and healthy, but they have had their eyes on this matchup since back at the end of April when the schedules were announced. Being that we have two veteran teams taking the field tonight with many returning starters, there is much more reason to believe that we will get a much more crisp effort tonight than in the weeks ahead when the teams will be second and third tier and all coming in on short rest.

Now that I have convinced you all to jump into the Thursday/Monday slate this week, let me go ahead and talk you down just a little bit. Our first matchup tonight features the New England Patriots who host the Kansas City Chiefs. As is the case each season, the home team on the opening Thursday night game is the Super Bowl Champion from the previous season so if you did not get enough of Roger Goodell eating crow after the Super Bowl in February, just wait until he gets to do it in front of an especially hostile Gillette Stadium tonight in Foxboro.

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