Preseason schedule: Broncos to help 49ers break in new stadium

H/T to +The Sacramento Bee - sharing author Matt Barrows

Which NFL opponent gets to break in Levi's Stadium?

The honor goes to Peyton Manning and the +Denver Broncos, who will visit the 49ers in the second week of the exhibition season (Aug. 14-18). The +San Francisco 49ers will open the summer schedule on the road against the Ravens (Aug. 7-10) before testing out their new home against the Broncos and then the +Chargers on Aug. 24 at 1 p.m. They will finish the preseason on the road on Aug. 28 against the +Houston Texans. The start times for three of the four games have yet to be determined.

The 49ers' game in +Baltimore means that Jim Harbaugh will have faced his brother, John, in the regular season, the postseason and now the exhibition season. Preseason games held three time zones away are rare but not unprecedented. The 49ers traveled to the +Indianapolis Colts in 2010. This year's game is the first time they've played the Ravens in the preseason. 

This will be the third straight year the 49ers and Raiders will not face each other in the preseason. Violence during and after the teams' game in 2011 at Candlestick Park suspended what had been an annual summer meeting. The 49ers will visit the Raiders during the regular season. They also will visit the Broncos and host the Chargers during the regular season.

The first game played at $1.2 billion Levi's Stadium will be a soccer match between the +San Jose Earthquakes and the +Seattle Sounders FC on Aug. 2. That match will be used as a test run to make sure all of the stadium's operations - from parking to concessions to the video boards - work properly.

The regular-season schedule is expected to be released later this month. Team officials have said they will be on the road in Week 1 before hosting their first real game at Levi's Stadium in Week 2 on Sept. 14. The City of Santa Clara has asked that the 49ers not host any weekday games in the first year of the stadium. A percentage of the parking spaces that will be used on game days belong to nearby businesses, which ostensibly will be occupied on weekdays.

That means the team will not host any games on Monday or non-holiday games on Thursday in the inaugural season at the new stadium. However, it's possible they could host the last of the three games played on Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, the NFL today announced that next year's Pro Bowl will be played in Glendale Ariz., the site of the Super Bowl, which will be played a week later. Santa Clara will host the following year's Super Bowl, but the Pro Bowl game is expected to return to its usual location, Honolulu, that year.

-- Matt Barrows

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2014/04/which-nfl-opponent-gets-to.html#storylink=cpy

5 Headliners from NFL Preseason Schedule Release - Super Bowl rematch of Broncos - Seahawks

Seahawks - Broncos to rematch in Broncos first NFL preseason game (despite slated in regular season as well)

Nate Irving (#56 of Denver) breaks up pass intended for J. Kearse (#15 of Seattle) in 1st quarter of Super Bowl.
They'll rematch in the 2014 regular season as well. Photo Courtesy +Denver Broncos (AP)

The Five Most Intriguing Games On The 2014 NFL Preseason Schedule

Are you ready for some (pre-season) football? With the release of the NFL Preseason schedule earlier today, football-starved fans across the Internet finally have something concrete to look forward to, and talk about. While the games will be meaningless come December, there will be position battles to be won and lost and, of course, the longer extra point experiment. For the first two weeks of the preseason, the ball will be spotted at the 20-yard line for extra point kicks, which will turn extra points from 20-yard chip shots into something slightly more interesting. Last year, close to 99% of extra points were converted, which created little incentive for fans to stay in front of their televisions after the first six points. With that in mind, we've broken down the five most interesting preseason games, starting with the Chargers opener against the Cowboys.

Broncos to break in Levi's Stadium (49ers Pristine New Home) in Preseason

Week 1: Cowboys at Chargers: Last season Chargers PK Nick Novak had the worst success rate for kicks between 30-39 yards, going 13-16, or 81%. At the equivalent of a 38-yard field goal, the extended extra point could be an adventure for Novak. The game may also be as expensive some of the games on the Chargers schedule for the regular season, as the Cowboys almost always drive up prices on the road, even for their preseason games.

Week 4: Jets at Eagles: Week 4 is typically the week when starters take a seat. If Geno Smith beats out Michael Vick for the Jets starting job, this game could be a match-up of Michael Vick vs.Mark Sanchez, two once-franchise QBs. While not exactly the return of Andy Reid last year, it will be the most interesting pre-season game on Eagles schedule for reasons that have nothing to do with football. Vick spent five years in Philadelphia and he has the franchise to thank for giving him a second chance and a deal worth $100 million. In return, he delivered two wild-card playoff losses, and it will be interesting to see how the ever-honest fans at Lincoln Financial Field greet Vick in his return. 

Week 2: Broncos at 49ers: If not for Richard Sherman, this could have been a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. It will be the second year in a row the Broncos Schedule sets up a pre-season visit to San Francisco. While last year was Peyton’s final visit to Candlestick Park, this year will be his first to Levis Field. It will also be the first football game played in the $1.2 billion stadium, aka, the Field of Jeans. Given that novelty element, it will likely be sold out or close to sold out. Levis has a capacity of 68,500, which makes it on the small side for a football stadium. As a point of reference, the first ever game at Metlife Stadium brought in 67,511 fans for a game against the Jets and the Giants. The game was technically a home game on the Jets schedule, which may have been part of the reason almost 20,000 seats went unfilled.

August 3rd, Hall Of Fame Game: Giants Vs. Bills: While this would have been a potential Super-Bowl Matchup in the early 90s, in 2014, it’s a match-up of two teams just looking to compete. It is, however, the first snap of the football, and therefore, exciting.

Week 1: Seahawks at Broncos: While the preseason is often meaningless, this rematch of Super Bowl XLVIII should have a lot of meaning for the +Denver Broncos. After getting demolished by the Seahawks in the SuperBowl, a win in the rematch could allow the Broncos to shake some of the nightmares that they’ve surely lived with since February. For Broncos fans, a close game will give them a chance to imagine what could have been. A win would likely give them confidence about success for the Broncos schedule that’s ahead. Another blowout loss could lead to some serious soul searching, even if Peyton manning only takes a quarter of the snaps. (This statement should put any sports, football casual journalist on suspension for its miraculous attempt at making keyboard millennial trolls jump all over this and ride it for what it is worth, nothing) Something we see on +Bleacher Report and others horrifying articulation of pointless things. Sports CR3W would like to hope that we admit when we are following the lead of such a fuss on anything and will delineate what is worth keeping up in the brain for future use, reference. 

We say, "In what way is this even feasible?? Soul searching from ONE quarter in the "bleep,,, bleeping,, bleeeping" PREASEASON!! You're 'bleeeeep!ng' joking, right?"

+SPORTS CR3W will have to disagree with this statement or any other 'pundit' and/or 'analysis / insight' about a PRESEASON match whether it is a rematch or not. The same will be said of the +Seattle Seahawks and Broncos regular season matchup in Seattle that has all sorts of variables in it that weigh no significance regarding the Super Bowl debacle. 

To say and buy into ANY hype of a preseason game and its results is just plain misleading, ignorant, and naive. Sorry to all those expert journalists that will make so much of this matchup and the writers that are actually qualified to vote on matter of Hall of Fame inductees to MVP awards, etc. If qualifications pass for them on the latter matter's mentioned, they should know better than to say the result of this preseason game merits a single ioda towards a possible meeting about 5 months from then. Sorry preseason, John Fox and the Broncos use base defense, do not gameplan on offense and the point of the preseason is to give fringe players (especially the 1st and 2nd preseason games) a look at how they mesh or play with starters and players that are deeper on the depth chart. Mainly to see if they can make the cut or not, of course.

Broncos and Seahawks square off in Week 1 of Preseason

Especially, in special teams analysis of who could/should make the team for defense/special teams and hone their other skills at the perspective position. Simply said, do not give a damn about the result here, it has no relevance as to how the regular season will unfold for either club. Broncos will be using a lot of new faces on defense as well as old that were not on the team's Super Bowl roster. A reminder to all those that forget. 8 turnovers, the Broncos would have lost to the Canadian Football League champs to put it lightly. Suffice it to say, the Seahawks did not beat the Broncos "A" team as we've written before.
h/t +Forbes

NFL Preseason Schedule: Denver and Seahawks play First Preseason week for NFL

+NFL preseason schedule 2014: +Seattle Seahawks, +Denver Broncos meet again

David Steele
+Sporting News

Hoping Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos get a crack at revenge for the Super Bowl beatdown by the Seattle Seahawks? Look no further than the first weekend this August—if you're ready to put that much weight into the first full week of the NFL preseason.

The rematch of Super Bowl XLVIII, a 43-8 Seahawks win, takes place at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver the weekend of August 7-10, according to the preseason schedule the NFL released Wednesday afternoon.

Peyton Manning (AP Photo)

Dates and times for most of the 65 games were not released—only for the eight nationally-televised games, carried by NBC, Fox and ESPN. The Seahawks-Broncos game is not scheduled to be aired nationally. NFL Network routinely airs all preseason games, most of them on a delayed basis.

TUCKER: Late offseason start is ridiculous | Rating new coaches | Offseason schedule

One preseason game has been known since February— the annual Hall of Fame game in Canton on August 3 , between the +Buffalo Bills and +New York Giants. Seven new Hall members, including former Bill Andre Reed and former Giant Michael Strahan, will be enshrined the day before.

The regular season schedule is expected to be released later this month. The Thursday night opener usually hosted by the defending Super Bowl champion (this year, in Seattle), will be September 4.

Week 1 also features a rematch of the previous year's Super Bowl as San Francisco visits Baltimore, which means another Harbaugh Bowl, between head coaches Jim of the +San Francisco 49ers and John of the +Baltimore Ravens.

The final week of preseason brings New England to MetLife Stadium to face the New York Giants, who defeated the Patriots twice in Super Bowls in a five-year span.

The full week-by-week schedule, with national TV games noted:

AUGUST 3, HALL OF FAME GAME

NY Giants vs. Buffalo at Canton, Ohio (NBC)

WEEK 1 – AUGUST 7-10

Buffalo at +Carolina Panthers

+Cincinnati Bengals at +Kansas City Chiefs

+Cleveland Browns at +Detroit Lions

+Dallas Cowboys at +Chargers

+Green Bay Packers at +Tennessee Titans

+Houston Texans at +Arizona Cardinals

+Indianapolis Colts at +New York Jets

+Miami Dolphins at +Atlanta Falcons

+New England Patriots at +Washington Redskins

+New Orleans Saints at +St. Louis Rams

Oakland at +Minnesota Vikings

+Philadelphia Eagles at +Chicago Bears

+Pittsburgh Steelers at +New York Giants

San Francisco at Baltimore

Seattle at Denver

+Tampa Bay Buccaneers at +Jacksonville Jaguars

WEEK 2 – AUGUST 14-18

Jacksonville at Chicago (ESPN, 8/14)

Kansas City at Carolina (FOX, 8/17)

Cleveland at Washington (ESPN, 8/18)

Arizona at Minnesota

Atlanta at Houston

Baltimore at Dallas

Buffalo at Pittsburgh

Denver at San Francisco

Detroit at Oakland

Green Bay at St. Louis

Miami at Tampa Bay

NY Giants at Indianapolis

NY Jets at Cincinnati

Philadelphia at New England

San Diego at Seattle

Tennessee at New Orleans

WEEK 3 – AUGUST 21-24

Oakland at Green Bay (CBS, 8/22)

New Orleans at Indianapolis (CBS, 8/23)

San Diego at San Francisco (FOX, 8/24)

Cincinnati at Arizona (NBC, 8/24)

Pittsburgh at Philadelphia

Jacksonville at Detroit

Tennessee at Atlanta

Chicago at Seattle

Tampa Bay at Buffalo

Dallas at Miami

Carolina at New England

NY Giants at NY Jets

Washington at Baltimore

St. Louis at Cleveland

Houston at Denver

Minnesota at Kansas City

WEEK 4 – AUGUST 28

Arizona at San Diego

Atlanta at Jacksonville

Baltimore at New Orleans

Carolina at Pittsburgh

Chicago at Cleveland

Denver at Dallas

Detroit at Buffalo

Indianapolis at Cincinnati

Kansas City at Green Bay

Minnesota at Tennessee

New England at NY Giants

NY Jets at Philadelphia

San Francisco at Houston

Seattle at Oakland

St. Louis at Miami

Washington at Tampa Bay

Four men will make their NFL head coaching debuts: Houston's Bill O'Brien, at Arizona; Washington's Jay Gruden, at home against New England; Cleveland's Mike Pettine, at Detroit (with its new head coach Jim Caldwell), and Minnesota's Mike Zimmer, at home against Oakland. Besides Caldwell, also debuting with their new teams are Tampa Bay's Lovie Smith, at Jacksonville, and Tennessee's Ken Whisenhunt, at home against Green Bay.

The preseason will also feature the debut of the NFL's latest replay tweak , in which referees can consult with the officiating command center in New York for video review. That was the biggest rule change approved for next season at last month's league meetings, but not the only one to be instituted starting in the preseason:

— Goal posts will be extended by 5 feet, to help officials see whether kicks are good.

— The NaVorro Bowman rule—making recovery of a loose ball in the field of play reviewable—goes into effect.

— Roll-up blocks on the side of the leg will now be penalized along with those on the back of the leg.

— The game clock will no longer stop after a sack, except in the last two minutes of each half.

Also, only in the first two full weeks of the preseason, extra-point kicks will come from the 20-yard line, an experiment inspired by the proposal to move the kicks to the 25.

Two teams, the 49ers and Vikings, will move to new homes during the preseason. The first game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara will be Sunday, August 24 (Week 3), against San Diego. The Vikings' opener against Oakland will begin the first of two seasons at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota; the only other outdoor home game the Vikings have played since 1981 was a December 2010 game moved to the campus stadium after a blizzard collapsed the Metrodome roof. Their new downtown stadium is scheduled to open in 2016.