Since 2004 the defending Super Bowl champion has hosted a Thursday night kickoff extravaganza to begin the following season. Only 2013 was an exception when the Baltimore Ravens were muscled out by their baseball neighbors and forced to play in Denver.
A new season brings giddy excitement into our lives. That’s a hard feeling to identify with now because we’re all about to enter a dark, scary period without meaningful football for eight months.
So let’s make sure that when football finally does make its triumphant return, the spectacle warms our hearts just as much as last Sunday’s still unfathomable game. Below are the top three opponents that we’d like to see square off against the New England Patriots next fall in the season opener.
As always, the selection is limited here, as in addition to home games against each division opponent the Patriots are scheduled to play at Gillette Stadium against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015.
3. New York Jets
I know what you’re thinking: The Jets are horrible.
But oddly, for our purposes here that doesn’t seem to matter. The Patriots and Jets clashed twice in 2014, as they do every year. Predictably the Pats won both games. But the margin of victory wasn’t at all predictable.
The Jets won four times all season, yet the eventual Super Bowl champions beat them by only a combined three points over those two games. That includes a tight and low scoring one-point win in Week 16.
Under Rex Ryan the Jets always brought their best against New England, and that likely won’t change with Todd Bowles. Remarkably, the four most recent games between the two teams have all been decided by a field goal or less.
2. Philadelphia Eagles
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels are constantly tinkering while finding ways to exploit the opposing defense’s weakness. That aptly describes Philadelphia Eagles head coach and offensive wizard Chip Kelly, too.
To see the Patriots in action with that tweaking we only need to look back at their final two games. In the AFC Championship Game they keyed on a leaky Indianapolis Colts run defense as running back LeGarrette Blount rushed for 148 yards and three touchdowns. Then during the Super Bowl Tom Brady attempted 50 passes.
Kelly is similarly unpredictable while utilizing multiple running backs, and multiple tight ends. It all starts with LeSean McCoy, who just finished his third 1,300-plus yard season. Then there’s the always electric Darren Sproles, who logged 716 yards from scrimmage this past season despite being on the field for only 31 percent of Philadelphia’s offensive snaps.
The matter of who is under center for the Eagles is still a little uncertain, with Mark Sanchez a pending free agent, Nick Foles being dangled as trade bait and rumors of Kelly being interested in moving way up during the draft to snatch Marcus Mariota. So as always there are offseason dominoes still to fall, but the coaching matchup alone would make Patriots-Eagles a fine choice to open the season.
1. Pittsburgh Steelers
Let’s assume for a moment that the Patriots keep cornerback Darrelle Revis this offseason by either signing him to an extension, or succumbing to lunacy and picking up his $20 million option in 2015. Either way Revis playing elsewhere seems unlikely, which sets us up for this on opening night: Revis vs. Antonio Brown.
Brown was a consistent beast in 2014, leading the league in receiving yards with 1,698. That’s an average of 106.1 yards per game, and he also finished second with 13 receiving touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Revis allowed a passer rating of only 74.7 in coverage in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus (including the playoffs). His 14.8 cover snaps per target placed him third among cornerbacks who were on the field for at least 50 percent of their team’s snaps, again per PFF.
It doesn’t get much better than that for an individual matchup on opening night.
