How much of an advantage do home teams have in NFL? Within divisions

[Zippy Chippy]

The reason im asking this question is because i have always said road teams play better as stupid as it sounds. Seems like every week you see it. Pats escape at home vs Jets but win by 50 in NY. I have compiled stats for the last 5 years in the NFL. There have been 480 games within divisional opponents. How many do you think the home teams have won? l post answer in reply so try to guess before looking at 1st response.

[Zippy Chippy]

Home teams are 246-234 straight up. No spreads. 51% of the time the home team wins. I think the average person would think the home team wins atleast 2/3.

[Stillriledup]

Home team gets 3 pts in Vegas (allegedly). If a person is a sports bettor, there is really no reason to bet on home teams.....you can find teams who are great on the road (NYG for example) and wager on them when the time is right...you get the 'best of it' spreadwise.

Now, a team like Seattle might have a true home field advantage in certain situations, but other than them, it doesnt seem like too many teams have any kind of real advantage being at home. In fact, in plenty of cases, being at home is an actual disadvantage.

In the LA Kings recent stanley cup run, they won almost all their road games, im not sure what their final tally was, but it was a lot to a little...they may have only lost 1 road game the entire playoffs.

[horses4courses]

Some teams have a greater edge playing at home than others.

Denver, for instance, has the altitude in their favor.
Also, all teams playing inside domes have the capacity of distracting opposing offenses through crowd noise.
Most often, though, the best team wins the game - at home, or on the road.

[Valuist]

One time I like playing road teams is in divisional games. These teams are in surroundings that are not completely unfamiliar, and the opponents know each other well.

[Robert Fischer]

I kind of see home team advantage as an exception rather than the rule.

A lot of times things like turnovers, penalties, mistakes/blunders, big plays, injuries......
etc. are often going to be IMO a bigger swing in points.

Then there are certain times when home field is a big advantage.

[MaTH716]

I really think that there are only a couple of teams that have real home field advantage. Seattle due to the crowd noise and Green Bay due to the possible blistering cold (I guess the Bills could fall into that category if they didn't suck).


Otherwise due to the parity in the league and the familiarity of the majority of these teams, I really don't think that it's that big of a deal.

[Marshall Bennett]

Superdome can be a rowdy and noisy place. A definite advantage for Saints when they have a team worthy of raising hell over.

[Robert Fischer]

crowd noise can certainly be a factor

and that factor can depend on things like the experience of the QB and the communication to be able to change plays at the line ...

a hostile dome may totally ruin one team, while another team/qb may be able to handle it...

[cj's dad]

Until the last two disasters at home, the Ravens had won 16 straight, which certainly padded the stats.

[jgcanuck]

Conventional wisdom says the home team wins 60% of the time. That's over the long run - all games divisional or not.