In almost any sport home field is considered an advantage. The home team doesn't travel, feels comfortable, well rested, benefits from the support of their adoring fans and the incentive of wanting to please them. Well, not the Texans, not this year or any year. Two of the team's four losses have come at Reliant. It both cases, the team came out flat and ended their chances with a red zone interception. There have been some real stinkers on the home field through the years. Why isn't Reliant a fearful place to play? It's loud, it's proud, filled every Sunday with rabid fans. The home field seems to be a much more significant advantage to most other playoff teams like the Ravens, Steelers, and Saints.
When a team doesn't come to play, there is little the crowd can do to push them passed the lack of effort. IMO, home field advantage is most effective when a team is playing its best.
Small sample size. Actually, minute sample size. Negligible enough so there's no conclusion one can reasonably draw. Plus, even if one were to assume that Reliant Stadium does give visitors trouble, it's still advantageous. Because if one were to assume Ravens, Steelers, etc. play better at home, just having them on the road lower their strength.
eh, i think you're reading too much into it. we're 5-2 at home. one loss to the Raiders in which we had a chance to win on the last play. the other loss of course was yesterday with a 3rd string QB throwing INTs in the opponents territory. the crowd definitely affected the Panthers with false starts and delay of games. unfortunately, the team cannot overcome TO after TO. there are only 5 teams with less losses at home than the Texans. we're pretty much taking care of business at home.
Occasionally, a team finds that it focuses better on the road and has a bad habit of being complacent at home. Sometimes a hostile environment gets your hair up and gives you a dose of "healthy fear" The defense came to play yesterday. The offense came out sloppy and flat, got behind, and simply aren't capable of putting up 3-4 TDs at the moment.
During the Kubiak era, the team is 29-18 at home and 18-29 on the road. There was only one year that they had a better road record, and that was 5-3 vs 4-4.
I hear it matters more in the playoffs, but honestly as far as this year goes, it may not be a bad thing to go somewhere cold, snowy, and nasty to play. Passing games in general will suffer, and a team that plays hard defense and runs like hell will have an advantage. So among the AFC teams, only us, Baltimore, and the Jets would like that. We'll see.
Yeah, this team does seem to "rally 'round the family" more on the road. Our biggest beatdowns, Tennessee and Tampa, were both on the road and we had great intensity those games. But still, come January, with a rookie QB I want as many home games as possible. We probably don't win that Atlanta game on the road.
With the exception of the AFC West, the playoff teams this year (thus far) have a 50-6 home/away record.
if you win 80% of your home games, which the Texans should do if they play to win against TENN, then that's a home field advantage.
I think the Texans very much had an advantage in the Atlanta game with the fans causing all those false starts. Carolina game yesterday, the crowd never had a chance to get behind the team, since they came out fumbling.
I'll take the home field in the playoffs with this team as an advantage. I would imagine the atmosphere will be electric with the fans cheering and the Texans will be ready to go. Yesterday was a fluke and I'm glad they lost to humble the spirits a little and make the squad more hungry. As another poster said, too small a sample size.
Is the home crowd going to make TJ Yates make the right reads, and not throw an interception in the end zone? No. Can the home crowd get the defense fired up, and cause the opponents to false start, or misunderstand an audible? Yes, see the Atlanta game for results. It's not fair to say that Reliant has never been a home field advantage. The Texans under Kubiak have always had an overwhelmingly better home record than away. It's just that we're finally good enough to play consistently both at home, and on the road, hence the 2-2 split in home losses and road losses.
Historically thats a very BAD THING . Its long been a trend for dome teams to struggle in outdoor bitter weather. Green Bay had some crazy playoff streak where they didnt lose a home game for 50 years or so. And another Brett Favre cold standard where he always won if kickoff temperature was 30 degrees & under or something. The Texans are kind of a hybrid dome/outdoor team. But they definitely play more in climate controlled conditions. For me, home field and a bye for SURE
Horribly bad calls from the referees. Watt's roughing, Yate's spiral fumble, Arian's catch-fumble just off the top of my head. Just about every time this team gets a positive call at home, even if it's the right one, I feel like we lucked out.
Maybe if we had been playing an away game yesterday, we would have lost by a score of 38-6, instead of 28-13. Just because we lost doesn't mean we didn't benefit greatly by playing at home.
