To quote one of my favorite SNL skits, "who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?"

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071024/SPORTS03/710240466/1100

The week becomes even more truncated when a Monday night road game is followed by a road game the next Sunday. Over the past decade, the NFL schedule makers have set up that scenario -- away Monday, away Sunday -- 24 times. Draw your own conclusion as to the impact: Road teams are 12-12 in their ensuing Sunday games, and have lost seven of the past 10.

But the odds are further stacked against the Colts. The Panthers were off last weekend. Carolina last played, and won, Oct. 14 at Arizona. Sunday marks only the third time since 1997, and the first since 2004, that a team has played away from home on Monday and again the next Sunday against a team coming out of its bye.

(Emphasis added)

This is a dangerous game, IMO. A very rare away-monday night/away next Sunday vs. team off Bye combined with the potential to look ahead at the Patriots. Really, what the hell were the schedule makers thinking when they drew this up?

Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president of public relations, said the league is sensitive to every team's scheduling concerns and attempts to minimize what might be considered inequities.

"But sometimes it is unavoidable when you are constructing a 256-game schedule," Aiello wrote in an e-mail. "It's just the way it worked out this year."

So he's saying that this schedule quirk was just plain unavoidable?  I'm not saying they did it on purpose, but to have it turn out this way - did they even try to fix it to make it a bit more fair?

Update [2007-10-24 12:2:7 by jdb]: : Ahhh the internet. Found the video of said SNL skit.