NFL Schedule Released; Best Week 1 Match-Ups

The 2012 NFL Schedule has officially been released, which means two things.  One is that it's time to get prepared for one of the best times of the year for sports bettors, and the other is that we all get to check out how tough our favorite teams' schedules are.  While there are 17 full weeks of games to look at, today we are going to take a look at the week one NFL match-ups, and break down which ones look to be the best of the best of the games to kick off the 2012 season.

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants (Wednesday, September 5th at 8:30pm EST)

Oh yes, you read that correctly.  The opening game of the season is on a Wednesday night due to issues with not wanting to compete with something relating to the Presidential election.  On top of that though, it features the defending Super Bowl Champions against their most hated rivals to kick off the year, what a great way to start it.  The Dallas Cowboys look to have filled quite a few serious needs on defense, but they'll be in for a tough task when they have to go to New York and that hostile environment to start off the year.  This game should be not only one of the best of the week, but one of the best of the SEASON.

San Francisco 49ers at Green Bay Packers (Sunday, September 9th at 4:15pm EST)

And another huge one to start off the 2012 NFL season when these two NFC teams meet on Sunday.  The 49ers had an incredibly impressive run through the NFL season last year, only to see it come to an end when they were unable to knock off the eventual Super Bowl Champion New York Giants.  And then of course we have the OTHER team who the Giants beat in Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, who are once again Super Bowl betting favorites.  This game should be a battle of the Packers' strong offense against the 49ers strong defense, and it'll be a good one.

Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos (Sunday, September 9th at 8:20pm EST)

This is the first Sunday Night Football match-up of the year, and it's going to be incredibly anticipated.  This is Peyton Mannings first regular season start for his new team, and it'll be up against one of the toughest defenses in the NFL in the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The Broncos fans are definitely going to be rowdy to welcome their new quarterback as well, so expect this game to have a ton of intensitiy and probably quite a bit of huge hitting, which will make it even more interesting than it already should be!