NFL Playoff Predictions: 6 Teams That Gain Most from Home-Field Advantage

Much of the talk over the next week or so will be about home-field advantage.

Everybody wants it, only half the playoff teams are going to have it, and the home field can serve as a 12th man in those games where teams are sparring for any edge they can find.

Here's our list of six of the best places for teams to call home in 2011.

6. San Francisco 49ers: Candlestick Park

There was a time in the 1980s and the 1990s when Candlestick was a place teams simply didn’t want to come to play.

The 49ers were among the best in the game and they were at their best at home.

In 2011, that old-time feeling is starting to return. San Francisco won seven of eight games at home this season and came into the weekend as one of just two teams with seven home wins.

5. New England Patriots: Gillette Stadium

There has been no place in the NFL tougher to pick up a road win in the last decade than in New England, where the Patriots have been delighting the locals win playoff-caliber football dating back to 2001’s Super Bowl win.

That was the first of three Super Bowl wins in four years for the Patriots, where they have built a tradition of winning at home and gotten fans used to the good life.

This time around the Patriots came into the weekend with five wins in six tries at home.

4. Pittsburgh Steelers: Heinz Field

The home of the Terrible Towel, the Steelers play in front of fans that have been coming out to watch the team for generations.

They know football and they love football in Pittsburgh.

Mind you, they have a lot to love with the Steelers a power at home (and on the road) year after year.

But this is a place where the fans let you know who’s boss.

3. New Orleans Saints: Superdome

This place was state of the art at one time, but now it’s a throwback to another generation of multiple-use domes.

But gone are the days of the Aints, when fans would come out wearing paper bags over their heads with cutouts for the eyes.

This is a fan base that loves the Saints, who were a local and regional rallying point in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

And those fans have the Saints 6-0 at home and heading to the playoffs.

2. Baltimore Ravens: M&T Bank Stadium

Baltimore may have lost one beloved team when the Colts moved to Indianapolis, but the Colts didn’t leave because the fans didn’t love them.

Baltimore fans are rabid in the extreme, and the vast majority of those have aligned their affections with the Ravens. They have been one of the best teams in the NFL over the course of the last few years with double-digits in wins during four of the last six seasons, including coming into this weekend 10-4. The Ravens are 7-0 at home, 3-4 on the road.

That’s a home-field advantage.

1. Green Bay Packers: Lambeau Field

Lambeau Field is a throwback to the very beginnings of the NFL, and the fans, many of whom are owners of shares of the team, have a personal and generational attachment both to the Packers and to Lambeau itself.

The Packers are 6-0 at home this season and have won 14 straight (including three in the 2010 season’s playoffs) since the last time a team came in and won here—the Dolphins pulled off an overtime win in Week 6 in 2010.

This isn’t a place you want to have to win, which is why locking down home-field advantage this weekend is paramount on the Packers’ minds.