NFL Schedule Maker

We have been hearing a lot of props going to the NFL Schedule Maker for all the meaningful games these last few weeks. It got me thinking that it looks like this year more than any I can remember, the schedule maker tried to predict who would be good and match up good teams against one another. Also it looks like there was an attempt to match up the two top predicted team in certain division. With that said, let's look at this weeks schedule and I will give my thoughts of what I think the schedule make was thinking in each game. By looking at the teams which most thought would be among the worst, we can get a clue about the team they matched them up with.

Oakland at Tampa - I don't think the schedule maker knew what to predict on either team so he matched them together. I don't think he expected this game to have playoff implications.
Detroit at Green Bay - Nothing expected of Detroit, so my take is that they didn't expect GB to be more than average with out Farve. Pretty good call.
Dallas at Philly - This looks like a battle of two top NFC East team. Doesn't get much better than intradivision rivalry. I believe they expected this to be one of the top games with playoff implications. Very good call!!
NY Giants at Minnesota - I believe they expected this might be for home field advantage. Good call, but they overestimated how good Minnesota would be.
Chicago at Houston - Expected two teams that just missed the playoffs or maybe with an outside chance for one of them to get in. This looks to be a good call.
Carolina at New Orleans - An intradivisional matchup of what looked to be the top two teams in that division. I imagine they were hoping this would be for the division title. Good call on Carolina, but a bad miss on New Orleans.
St. Louis at Atlanta - If you didn't believe my theory. This game says it all. I think this was projected to be a matchup of two of the bottom six teams. Totally missed on Atlanta (but didn't all of us). Nailed it on St Loius.
Kansas City at Cincy - Another projected match up of bad teams. Good call on this one.
Jacksonville at Baltimore - Not sure what was being thought on this one. Since Jacksonville was projected to be good, I believe the schedule maker was thinking this could be for a wildcard and that Baltimore might be in the mix.
Tennessee at Indy - An intradivsion match up of the projected top two teams by the schedule maker. (see a trend). I give big props to the schedule maker on this one as most expected Jacksonville to be the second best here.
Cleveland at Pittsburgh - An intradivsion match up of the projected top two teams by the schedule maker. (see a trend!). They really blew the call on Cleveland.
Miami at NY Jets - I believe they thought this was a battle of the 3rd and 4th place teams. The schedule was released (I believe) before Farve un-retired. I doubt they thought this game would matter to anyone except dolphin and jet fans.
New England at Buffalo - An intradivsion match up of the projected top two teams by the schedule maker. (see a trend). New England even without Brady did not disappoint, but they really missed on Buffalo
Seattle at Arizona - An intradivsion match up of the projected top two teams by the schedule maker. (see a trend). They missed badly on Seattle, but injuries killed that team.
Washington at San Fran - I don't think the schedule maker thought this game would have any playoff implications. Got that one pretty much right.
Denver at San Diego - An intradivsion match up of the projected top two teams by the schedule maker.

By my count the schedule maker matched up 7 out of the 8 division's projected top two teams. All but the NFC North, maybe they expected Minnesota to run away with it. I don't remember this being so much of the case in the past. I think you could look at the matchups in week 16 and they also tried to match up top teams. If you have any doubt that they didn't think the dolphins would be good, they matched us up against KC.

Over all I think they did a pretty good job. Obviously on the bad side they missed Atlanta, Miami and the Saints. On the plus side it doesn't look like they thought the Jets or Jacksonville would be good, but did call the Cardinals to be one of the top two teams in their division.

I did my best to put myself in the schedule maker shoes which of course is easier to do after the fact. Once the 2009 schedule comes out, I will try to predict the schedule makers thoughts on teams in advance.

Happy Holidays Everyone!