Wednesday Morning QB (Wild Card Weekend)
The entire regular season is a build-up for the playoffs as teams constantly jockey for position to earn a spot in the playoffs and a better shot at the Super Bowl.
When the regular season begins to wind down the battle is more for the advantage of having home field throughout the playoffs on their way to the Super Bowl. Playing at home is considered to be one of the biggest advantages in sports as it provides a sense of comfort.
In football it can provide a little more of an advantage with the crowd noise able to cause mistakes on offence for the visiting team.
It is considered the best thing to get on the way to the playoffs as playing at home is what everyone is working for.
Home field advantage is somewhat of a myth though as there are only a select few teams that have a distinct advantage playing at home.
These few teams have stadiums that truly bring the crowd noise into the equation during a game but there are only a select few that get that advantage.
In the past the home field advantage may have been slightly more when it came to the differences in temperature as well.
Teams in the north made their names during cold weather games that forced opposing teams to play on terrible fields in freezing temperatures.
Now those fields are all heated properly with the latest technology and the idea that a team that is from the cold weather isn’t as affected as the visiting team has fallen off in recent years.
The fact is that all of the advantages that were once thought of when playing at home are not nearly as big as they were once thought.
The battle for home field makes a great regular season but in the end it may not mean too much and this Wild Card Weekend was the perfect expression of that.
No matter the noise or the weather the home teams were unable to hold their visitors off in every game.
Houston welcomed Kansas City and the hottest team in the NFL set the tone for the rest of the league with the first game.
Thanks to a poor performance by Texans’ QB and another strong showing from the Chiefs that gave them an easy 30-0 win on the road.
The Bengals hosted the Steelers in a game that was sure to include plenty of bad blood between two division rivals.
The Bengals seemed to feel it a bit more though as they had the lead in the fourth quarter before two 15-yard penalties put Pittsburgh in field goal range giving them the win.
The Seahawks travelled east to face Minnesota in what was the 3rd coldest game in the history of the NFL playoffs.
Both teams fought it out in a tight game but in the end the Vikings missed a last second field goal giving the Seahawks the win and all of a sudden three visiting teams had won their games.
The final game came down to the struggling Packers visiting scrappy Washington and it was another tight one.
That was until the Packers got going and began getting the momentum towards a 35-18 win. It was the fourth visiting team of the weekend to win their game and for the first time in the history of the NFL playoffs no home team won a game.
The myth of home field continues to be exposed as this year’s wild card weekend showed that it is not necessarily an advantage.
A lot of home teams win but that is usually because they are the best teams in the league and not because they play at home.
Wild Card Weekend showed that good teams will win no matter where they play and many of the teams that made the playoffs in the wild card were the better teams.
Now the theory gets tested again but unlike the wild card games the home teams are some of the best in the league this year.
It is going to be tough for any visiting teams to win but if they all lose it won’t be because of the stadiums but rather that teams like Carolina, Arizona, New England, and Denver are on the other side.
Fifth Quarter:
(Thoughts on Wild Card Weekend)
The NFL in L.A.
The Los Angeles Rams are back as the NFL owners voted in favour of their plan to move the team to Inglewood in a brand new stadium that should be finished by 2019 while the San Diego Chargers have the option to move with the Rams and if they decline the option goes to the Raiders
Cincinnati Fallout
The Bengals collapsed at the end of their wild card game earning two 15-yard penalties giving the Steelers a chance that they took at the field goal and it all started with Vontaze Burfict who launched a hit to the head for the first penalty and earned a 3-game suspension
New Face in Miami
The Miami Dolphins were the first team to fill their head coaching vacancy when they named Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase who partnered with Peyton Manning in Denver in one of the best offences in NFL history
Destination Dallas
A week after reports surfaced that Johnny Manziel wanted to be traded to the Cowboys reports began to surface that Robert Griffin III wanted the same thing as his place in Washington is in doubt for the future
The Sport Addiction 