The Road To Tampa
December 8th, 2020
Just get in the playoffs, baby.
In this crazy football season, a fan almost expects the unexpected.
So if a team has to play on the road in the playoffs, this might be the year a team would want to be on the road in January.
Usually, the road is a disadvantage, especially in the postseason. Not in the Year of The Sickness.
As Hall of Fame NFL writer Rick Gosselin points out, it’s nearly an even draw when teams hit the pavement this fall.
The COVID impact on the NFL: there are few if any fans in the stands. So there is no 12th man at Seattle, no decibel-splitting roar at Arrowhead & no longer a homefield advantage in the NFL. Road teams have a 96-94-1 record this season, including a 10-4 mark last weekend.
— Rick Gosselin (@RickGosselin9) December 8, 2020
So if the Bucs do make the playoffs, there won’t be any home games (unless they make the Super Bowl, if they make the Super Bowl). Today Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians was asked about the not-so-disadvantage of playing on the road in January.
“This year especially – with no fans – the home-field advantage is really going to be out the window,” Arians said. “It’s just going to be lining up and playing in empty stadiums.
“What has been a big, big part of the playoffs in the past is home-field advantage [but] I don’t think it’s going to be an advantage this year. It’s just a matter of getting in.”
For the Bucs, the disadvantage won’t be the fans on the road but Old Man Winter.
So the idea that the Bucs could march through three road games to make the Super Bowl should be easier this year than maybe ever before.
If the Bucs make the playoffs.
December 8th, 2020 at 3:35 pm
joe – not necessarily. if the bucs finish 5th and let’s say all wild card teams win the first weekend, bucs would have a home game in the divisional round. i expect wild card winners to win more this year so at some tpojnt the bucs could have a home game depending where we finish. maybe even the nfc championship.
December 8th, 2020 at 3:43 pm
[Sorry, accusing a man elected to the highest office in the land with committing one of the most heinous crimes a human can pull won’t fly here. Maybe you can pull that stunt on Parler but not here. … Careful where you step. What Sleepy Joe has to do with the Bucs playing road playoff games is beyond Joe’s comprehension. — Joe]
December 8th, 2020 at 3:49 pm
As delusional as ever and I was big on Arians before this year. Think there’s no disadvantage playing in December at Green Bay or Seattle? Clearly you haven’t played in the playoffs in awhile
December 8th, 2020 at 3:58 pm
I dont know Joe, just wanted to vent and have fun. Go Bucs.
December 8th, 2020 at 4:14 pm
^^^
Was Joe referring to Trump or Biden…😀
December 8th, 2020 at 5:49 pm
Agree, home field is not an issue in the playoffs. However, the weather could be.
December 8th, 2020 at 6:50 pm
We never play well in the cold it’s our curse
December 8th, 2020 at 10:11 pm
I don’t know Joe, Bucs seem to be better away from Tampa. As a transplant town, we have as many fans of the away teams as we do of the Bucs on game day. The transplants are treating themselves to 1 game for the year and they are loud and wild. Of course if the Bucs won a bit more those transplants would finally convert. Fair weather fans, came for the sun, and when the Bucs win they’ll root for them as well.