Home no place like normal in '20 NFL

FILE - A few fans watch in Lambeau Field during the first half of an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Tennessee Titans in Green Bay, Wis., in this Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, file photo. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer, File)
FILE - A few fans watch in Lambeau Field during the first half of an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Tennessee Titans in Green Bay, Wis., in this Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, file photo. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer, File)

For the eight NFL teams guaranteed to host at least one game in the playoffs this month, the comfort of familiar surroundings sure can't hurt their quest to reach the Super Bowl.

Staying in the same time zone and avoiding travel ought to help players stay fresh. For the far-north teams, namely Green Bay and Buffalo, the cold, wind and potential snow could provide a timely boost against an opponent from a warmer-weather city.

Make no mistake, though: The home-field advantage that has long been part of the story of professional football all but vanished during the year of the virus. Largely empty stadiums cut off crowd noise as an energy source and strategic asset.

"It doesn't feel any different playing at home or playing away right now," said Seattle Coach Pete Carroll, whose team normally has a leg up as much as any host with the partial roof cantilevered over the seats that helps amplify the noise at what is now called Lumen Field. "It's just evened everything out."

Visitors are a collective 128-127-1 this season -- the first winning mark since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Road teams were narrowly outscored 6,353-6,339, a mere two-touchdown gap.

In 2019, though the visitors managed an anomaly of a plus-36 scoring margin, home teams still went 132-123-1 for a .518 winning percentage. In 2018, according to Sportradar, the advantage for the hosts was far more clear: a .602 winning percentage and a 564-point edge.

Over the previous 10 years, home teams collected 342 more wins than the visitors and scored an average of an additional 2.19 points per game. Over the 50 seasons prior to this unprecedented 2020 scene of largely empty stadiums, the home team winning percentage was .575.

The difference was immediately noticeable. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was able to lure Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr offside on third and 5 late in the third quarter of the opener at Minnesota, which had enjoyed one of the NFL's most daunting environments for visiting teams.

The no-risk throw by Rodgers after the yellow flag flew went for a 39-yard completion to Marquez Valdes-Scantling to set up a score and put the game away. The Vikings, after matching the best home record in the NFC over their first four years at U.S. Bank Stadium, went 3-5 there in 2020.

Even in road games, the defense was more exposed in the highest-scoring regular season in NFL history. In Pittsburgh on Dec. 27, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger heard the Indianapolis Colts shouting, "Slant, slant, slant!" before a first-down snap in the third quarter to warn the defensive backs of the route he might deliver the ball to.

"We should've run a slant. I almost changed the play, but I didn't because they were yelling it," Roethlisberger said.

Instead, he threw deep to Diontae Johnson for a 39-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 10 points and ignited a comeback for a 28-24 victory.

"There are absolutely times in games where you hear a defender say, 'Hey, watch this,' and you're like, 'Man, that's what we called.' Some of that is dumb luck. Some of that is maybe tendencies. We can hear stuff that they talk about," Roethlisberger said. "It is one of the most unique years when it comes to strategy, when it comes to trying to trick people. Sometimes you even are trying to do dummy signals and saying dummy things just to make things happen or to trick other teams."

FILE - Cutouts of Minnesota Vikings fans are shown in the stands of US Bank Stadium during the second half of an NFL football game between the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis, in this Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, file photo. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums.(AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)
FILE - Cutouts of Minnesota Vikings fans are shown in the stands of US Bank Stadium during the second half of an NFL football game between the Atlanta Falcons and Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis, in this Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020, file photo. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums.(AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2020, file photo, empty seats are shown at Levi's Stadium during the first half of an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals in Santa Clara, Calif. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 13, 2020, file photo, empty seats are shown at Levi's Stadium during the first half of an NFL football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals in Santa Clara, Calif. The eight teams hosting NFL playoff games this month are more than happy to be staying home with all of comfort it brings, but the actual advantage of playing there all but disappeared during this pandemic season of mostly empty stadiums. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

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