The San Diego Chargers will play six of their first 10 games against teams that made the playoffs last season, including Super Bowl champion Green Bay, and will be seen in five national TV matchups during the year.
The season opens on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with a home game against Minnesota. The Chargers play three of their first four at Qualcomm Stadium, wrapped around a Week 2 trip to New England. The Bolts meet their first AFC West opponent a week after visiting the Patriots, hosting the Chiefs on Sept. 25.
“Three of the first four at home … that’s big,” Head Coach Norv Turner said. “There’s obviously going to be an emphasis on getting off to a fast start. We’ve been able to overcome some of the slow starts but weren’t able to do it last year so I think that’ll have a real strong meaning for our football team.”
San Diego’s bye week falls during a difficult second quarter of the season that includes road games at Denver, the New York Jets and Kansas City.
A Halloween game in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium on Monday Night Football marks the first national TV appearance for the Bolts in the 2011 regular season as San Diego continues to be a popular choice by the networks.
The defending Super Bowl champion Packers come to San Diego Nov. 6 and Oakland visits Nov. 10 on a Thursday game that will be broadcast on the NFL Network. The Chargers face two short weeks in a row during that 11-day stretch.
The Chargers also appear on Monday Night Football with a trip to Jacksonville on Dec. 5. Sunday Night Football will broadcast from Qualcomm Stadium on Dec. 18 as San Diego hosts Baltimore.
Four of the first five road games and six of the first 10 games overall are against teams that made the playoffs last season. The Chargers also close with two road games for the second consecutive season, traveling to Detroit on Christmas Eve and closing out the season in Oakland on New Year’s Day.
The Chargers face one of the toughest schedules in the NFL going off 2010 results. The combined winning percentage of San Diego’s opponents is .520, tied with several teams for the third-toughest in the league along with Denver and Kansas City.
“Teams change every year. Two years ago people thought we had the toughest schedule we’ve had in a long time and we were 13-3,” Turner said. “Last year at this time people were saying our schedule was an easy schedule and we didn’t do as well as we’d like. So this will play out in terms of the difficulty of the schedule.”
The Chargers’ preseason schedule also has been confirmed. At home, the Chargers will face the Seattle Seahawks on an ESPN nationally-televised game on Thursday, Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. and the San Francisco 49ers to close out the preseason on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. The road games include a game at Dallas on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 5 p.m. PT and a game at Arizona on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. PT. Home games vs. the Seahawks and 49ers are subject to local blackout rules and must be sold out 72 hours before kickoff to be televised live in Southern California. (Source Chargers NFL)
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Print Friendly CHARGER FOOTBALL SCHEDULE 2011
All times Pacific. Home games in BOLD.
Home games will be subject to local blackout rules and will be shown locally if they are sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff. Dates and times are subject to change. *Denotes flex scheduling and games subject to time change.