NFL Playoff Schedule 2012: Home-Field Means Nothing in Championship Round

Home-field advantage ain't what it used to be.

From 1990 to 2001, teams that had byes were 39-9 in their first playoff game. From 2005 to 2010 that mark is 12-12.

The ’05 Steelers won three on the road in route to the Super Bowl, the Giants did it in ’07 and so did the Packers last year.

In other words, fan noise and field conditions aren’t as big of a deal as we make it out to be. With so many teams using silent counts on offense with hand signals and pumping in fake crowd noise in practice to help offset the commotion, it doesn’t faze them as well as it once did. Players stay in five-star hotels and are distraction free unlike the home team who likely has family in town from all around the country for a big playoff game.

On Sunday, the two road teams have been here before.

Along with their miracle run to the Super Bowl in ’08, the Giants had a better record on the road (5-3) than at home (4-4) during the season and are coming off a dominating performance at the infamous Lambeau Field. Tom Coughlin is 1-2 at home in the playoffs and 4-1 on the road during his Giants tenure.

The temperature in San Francisco isn’t going to be anything the G-Men aren’t used to and the time zone difference is never that big of a deal for the east coast team traveling west. With a veteran offensive line and a quarterback in Eli Manning that never seems to get rattled, the rockin’, rowdy crowd at Candlestick Park is not going to be an issue.

Same goes for the Baltimore Ravens, who embarrassed the New England Patriots at Foxboro in the 2010 postseason.

They only went 4-4 away from Baltimore during the regular season, but that veteran defense is built for handling road adversity with their incredible veteran leadership, and QB Joe Flacco has already played seven road playoff games in his career, going 4-3.

The temperatures are expected to be in the high 30’s which is perfectly fine for another cold weather team.

So be careful when evaluating your picks this weekend. Don’t pick the home team just because they're at home.

The friendly confines of playing at home aren’t as friendly as they used to be.