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One
of the many things that make the National Football League the king of
sports, is the drama and urgency it brings each week.
There
are only 16 games in the season, so each one is critical. None of
the other major sports have that urgency, and importance. Baseball
plays 162 games, and the NBA and NHL play 82 games each.
And
while you never want to lose three or four games in a row in any sport, in any league, if it does happen in one of those leagues it is not the end of the world. However, if you lose three of four straight in the NFL, you are in ‘must win’ situations, and your season is in peril.
But there is certainly room for error, even in the NFL. In fact, you really aren’t in
trouble until you lose a game at home.
Here
is how coaching staffs in the NFL typically look at their 16 game
schedule. While they are always looking to go 16-0, they realize that is practically impossible. There are going to be losses during the season. With that in mind, the goal is to go 4-4 on the road, and 8-0 at home.
Split on the road and protect your home turf. Doing that is going to give you a 12-4 season, and more than likely a
playoff game at home, and possibly, a bye.
The problems start when you lose a game at home. Suddenly, you need to win five games on the road, and in the NFL, where there is so much parity, that is just a very difficult thing to do. According to research done by Sports Chart, 58 percent of teams that play at home, win. That practically a 60-40 win, lost ratio. Rarely does something odd happen like last season (2014) when the Dallas Cowboys went 8-0 on the road, and only 4-4 at home.
That is why there is a huge difference in a team that starts the season 0-2 on the road, as opposed to 0-2 at home. The 0-2 road team can still get those eight wins at home, while the 0-2 home team needs to find six road wins.
That said, at some point your team better start winning football games, no matter where they are played. It gets late early in the NFL. And, for coaching staffs who don’t win, the NFL stands for Not For Long.
