The Eagles Have a Home Field Advantage Again
It’s a small sample size, but the Eagles’ struggles at home may be turning around. A couple years ago, we wrote a post on their lack of a home field advantage. From 2004-2014, the Eagles were the only NFL team to have a better winning percentage on the road than at home. The only one. Carson Wentz was even asked about it:
“Honestly, it’s surprising. I thought you were gonna go the other way with that, not dead last. Um, heck, I guess I don’t know what to make of it. I haven’t played in the Linc yet so I’ll have to wait and see and get my own sense. Maybe if you ask me in a year or two I’ll have a better sense of it once I’m around that area but, heck, that’s pretty surprising. And usually not a good thing so we’ll flip that around at least for the Eagles…That’s really interesting. We’re gonna turn that around, though.”
Turn it around he did. Right now, the Eagles are 5-4. At home, they’re 4-0. While the 1-4 on the road is bad, very bad, it’s usually been (on average) the other way around. And it’s not just their record. They’re blowing teams away:
Eagles 4-0 outscoring opponents 108-38, best home point differential in NFL. #FlyEaglesFly @CSNPhilly pic.twitter.com/hJQfP4htDX
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) November 13, 2016
But it’s not just points. At home, the Eagles’ offense has more average yards gained, more yards per rush (4.4 to 4.0) and pass attempt (7.0 to 6.1). Carson Wentz has 5 TDs and 2 INTs at home vs. 4 TDs and 3 INTs on the road. At the Linc, he’s been sacked 4 times. Away, he’s been dragged down 15. His QBR jumps up from 81.6 to 91.8 when he’s at home.
The defense holds visiting teams to fewer yards per rush (4.1 to 4.5) and pass attempt (5.7 to 7.0) than when the Birds are on the road. They’ve allowed 3 TDs at home (1 rush, 2 pass) and 14 on the road (11 pass, 3 rush). The QBR of opposing QBs at the Linc is 64.1. When the Eagles are on the road, it’s 91.5.
As weird as it may be to have home field advantage in a stadium where your wide receivers are routinely booed, that might actually be the case.