I am actually happy we are playing BAL week 1 AWAY. It's honestly the best scenario:
1. To ImWithDan's point, we are a brand new team basically. New scheme/style of play really on both sides of the balls. Defense will play to our strengths but will still be changed. They cannot just gameplan to stop Chubb and cover OBJ/Jarvis. There are a lot more weapons/tricks that can be played.
2. If we lose (hopefully not blown out), we lost to easily the 2nd best team in the AFC by a large margin in their home stadium. And I was at the BAL game last year in Baltimore when we won - that stadium was nuts until we started pulling away. Definitely not an easy place to play.
3. Without playing KC, it's great we get to play one of the best AFC teams right off the rip to see how we stack up. It is week 1 and there will be rust, especially after this offseason, but it can only hopefully go uphill from week 1.
The back half of the schedule can be looked at being unfortunate or kind of okay. After our bye, we get to place 2 good teams (HOU maybe? but yes PHIL) at home, but then we have to go on the road 4/5 weeks heading into the big part of our playoff stretch. But looking at it from the other side, those 4 away games aren't horrible:
Jags - winnable
Titans - scary
Giants - winnable
Jets - winnable
That very last game, home against the Steelers, could end up being a huge game. I know that sounds obvious saying it now, but I am happy we get to play the Ravens/Steelers away earlier and home later.
