Buffalo Bills schedule 2013: opponents have bye week advantage

When the NFL releases its regular season schedule each spring, a favorite pastime for Buffalo Bills fans is to comb through the slate of games and figure out how many times the Bills get screwed playing against the New England Patriots a week after the Pats' bye.

Chris Brown of BuffaloBills.com took that exercise a step further in a post published this morning, revealing that the Bills play more games than any other NFL team against teams coming off of extra rest in 2013. (Note that "extra rest" includes not just bye weeks, but teams coming off of Thursday night games, as well.)

Five of the Bills' 16 games will be played against teams that will have extra time to prepare. That's one more than the next-highest team, the Atlanta Falcons, who play four such games, while the league's other 30 teams have three or fewer such contests. Brown also points out that after Buffalo's Week 12 bye, they'll be playing a Falcons team coming off of - you guessed it - a Thursday night contest.

Buffalo's schedule for next season certainly has its advantages - a front-loaded slate of home games could lead to fewer blackouts than in recent years, for example - but clearly, the NFL's schedule makers have given the Bills some obstacles to overcome, as well.