Top NFL games of the 2013 season

By Rick Morris

Here’s a list of the top NFL games of the next season.  We’ll update this list once the schedule is announced and we know which games will be played when.

1T San Francisco at Seattle and Seattle at San Francisco: This is now the early front-runner for best rivalry of the 2010s.

3 New England at Baltimore: The preeminent rivalry in the AFC over the past two seasons erupts again.

4 Denver at New York Giants: This will probably be the final Manning Bowl.

5 Denver at Indianapolis: Peyton comes back to his old home to take on Andrew Luck?   Wow!

6 Baltimore at Denver: Think the Broncos will be up for revenge much?

7 Denver at New England: At this stage of the game, any Peyton-Brady matchup could be the last one.

8 Atlanta at San Francisco: The rematch of the NFC Championship Game will take place in the home of the conference champions.

9 Houston at San Francisco: This is my early pick for the Super Bowl preview.

10 Seattle at Houston: This is also a good bet for a Super Bowl preview.

11 Seattle at Atlanta: Given another chance, the Hawks won’t play Matt Ryan so loosely in the last few minutes.

12 New England at Houston: This will be a big test for the Texans as they try to work their way up the ladder of legitimate title contenders.

13T Given the intrigue with football’s toughest three-way battle for division supremacy, we’re including every game between Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

19 Green Bay at New York Giants: This battle of two of the last three Super Bowl champions matches incredible offenses and spotty defenses.

20 Green Bay at Baltimore: This is the other battle of two of the last three Super Bowl champions, featuring two teams who have much to prove in 2013.

21 Seattle at Indianapolis: It’s the first battle of two of the top QBs of the epic class of 2012, Luck and Russell Wilson.

22 Pittsburgh at Green Bay: This rematch of Super Bowl 45 features two teams who haven’t even been back to Championship Sunday since then.

23 Green Bay at San Francisco: The renewal of this great ‘90s rivalry is back in full force.

24 Indianapolis at San Francisco: Along the lines of Luck vs. Wilson, how much do you like Luck vs. Colin Kaepernick?

25 Pittsburgh at New England: This was a great, albeit one-sided rivalry in the 2000s and still means something in the AFC hierarchy.

HONORABLE MENTION

^ both New York Giants/Dallas games

^ both Houston/Indianapolis games

^ both Green Bay/Chicago games

^ New England at Atlanta

^ Green Bay at Cincinnati

^ New England at Cincinnati

^ Houston at Denver

^ San Francisco at New Orleans

^ Houston at Baltimore