New England Patriots: Should Gillette Stadium Rank Among Toughest for Opponents?

In a recent power ranking from ESPN's NFL bloggers, the New England Patriots home field Gillette Stadium was voted the seventh most difficult venue for opposing teams.

Color me surprised. That's putting it lightly, too.

First of all, it's terribly unclear what the criterion are for this vote. Are they voting on the teams that play best at their home stadium? Does this power ranking heavily favor teams that play in poor climates? Is this a ranking of the most raucous stadiums in the NFL?

I could see the Patriots getting votes based on the first two, but the last? Patriots fans have drawn the ire of their very own team for a lack of passion at home game. This includes, but is not limited to, Tom Brady's comments about Patriots fans leaving early during a 14-point rout of the Bengals in Week 1 of 2010.

According to Boston Herald writer Ian Rapoport, Brady said, "...when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about."

He's not the only one who's upset about the lack of crowd noise. Boston.com's Christopher Gasper points out Vince Wilfork's comments after the Patriots lost to the Ravens 33-14 in the 2009 Wild Card round.

"It felt like we were playing an away game," said Wilfork. "That's what it felt like, so even if we would have moved on from here, we would have played two away games back-to-back. I'm telling you for so much this team has done in the past, I don't understand it."

But it's not all about crowd noise or enthusiasm. Sometimes, it's just about having an advantage between the ears of the opponent. In the same article, Gasper mentions the Patriots' epic win-loss record at Gillette Stadium, which was extended to 67-13 by the end of the 2010 regular season.

That's a pretty impressive record. I don't care how unimpressed the fans may seem during the games.

Don't forget Tom Brady's regular season home winning streak of 28 games, a record among NFL quarterbacks.

And of course, we have the difficult weather conditions. The snow at Gillette Stadium has become the stuff of legend. So have the Patriots' performances in such conditions.

How great can that advantage be, though, if the Patriots have lost their two most important home games in the past two years—both in the playoffs, both in January?

Put it this way—the Patriots work their butts off all season long to earn home field advantage, and now two seasons in a row, that advantage has been obsolete.

Of course, the Patriots have been outplayed in those games, but a boost of energy from a raucous crowd can sometimes be enough to overcome that. For the evidence, look no further than the Steelers (who ranked No. 2 on this list) overcoming a 21-7 halftime deficit against the Ravens.

Be it any number of mitigating factors—an open end zone, large spaces between the decks or an exorbitant amount of traffic that urges ticket holders to leave early—it's hard to justify Gillette Stadium outranking 25 other stadiums in this power ranking.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter @erikfrenz.