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
