After last weeks analysis, I decided to see how the NFC does in playoff games regarding home field advantage. I went back to the 2000 season and was happy to see the round where home-field advantage is the most effective is the divisional round. Here are the statistics to support my findings:
Wild Card Home Field Effectiveness: (9/14 appearances for 64.29%)
(5 home-field advantage losers in wild-card round of NFC since 2000)
- 2002 Season: Green Bay Packers losing at home to the Atlanta Falcons
- 2004 Season: Green Bay Packers losing at home to the Minnesota Vikings
- 2004 Season: Seattle Seahawks losing at home to the St. Louis Rams
- 2005 Season: Tampa Bay Buccaneers losing at home to the Washington Redskins
- 2005 Season: New York Giants losing at home to the Carolina Panthers
Divisional Round Home Field Effectiveness: (11/14 appearances for 78.57%)
(3 home-field advantage losers in divisional round of NFC since 2000)
- 2001 Season: Chicago Bears losing at home to the Philadelphia Eagles
- 2003 Season: St. Louis Rams losing at home to the Carolina Panthers
- 2005 Season: Chicago Bears losing at home to the Carolina Panthers
All of the home-field advantage losses in this round over the past seven years involve either the Chicago Bears hosting or the Carolina Panthers playing on the road. This round is so important for home-field advantage in the NFC during the past 11 seasons, as the #1 seed has never lost in the divisional round. These three home field advantage losses listed above are actually the only three to have happened in the last 11 seasons.
Conference Championship Round Home Field Effectiveness: (5/7 appearance for 71.43%)
(2 home-field advantage losers in championship round of NFC since 2000)
- 2002 Season: Philadelphia Eagles losing at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- 2003 Season: Philadelphia Eagles losing at home to the Carolina Panthers
Each round seems to have one team that really does not fair well with home field advantage in the NFC. The wild-card round was not kind to Mike Sherman as the Packers head coach during his tenure, only winning two of his four home field advantage appearances. The divisional round was not kind to the Chicago Bears and I was surprised this year that Chicago was able to finally get past their divisional round demons. The conference championship round was the nemesis of the Philadelphia Eagles as they went to four straight championship games, hosted three of them and only won one of those three games in which they held home field advantage to get to the Super Bowl. The other major comparison is that the lowest seed to ever reach the Super Bowl in the past 11 season for the NFC was the Carolina Panthers (#3) in 2003 and in the AFC a team seeded #3 or lower has made it five times in the same timeframe.
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