The San Francisco 49ers are off today following their Thanksgiving game against the Baltimore Ravens. While that means no 49ers football today, it does give us a chance to kick back and enjoy some Sunday football without the stress of waiting for the 49ers game. Now some of us just have the normal stress of fantasy football performances. Good times.
The morning session isn't exactly packed with a ton of great matchups, but that doesn't mean we won't get some good games. The most important games from a playoff perspective are Tampa Bay at Tennessee, Buffalo at the Jets and maybe Cleveland at Cincinnati. It is a lot of 4-6 to 6-4 teams mixing it up, so let's hope for the best.
A game that I actually think could be fun this morning is Carolina at Indianapolis. On the one hand I'd love to see Cam Newton just blow up the Colts defense. On the other hand, coming off a bye week I'm curious to see how the Colts game plan against Newton with the extra week of prep time. Of course, these are the 2011 Colts, so who knows if it will matter.
You could make an argument that the most important game of the day is actually Houston at Jacksonville. The Texans lost Matt Schaub for the season and now are relying on Matt Leinart. Given how important the Texans rushing attack and defense are to their success, is it possible they can do just fine without Schaub? Jacksonville isn't particularly great, but they can give folks some fits at home. This is a big test for the Texans who will be looking to maintain their playoff chances.