What’s wrong with the 5-year trend of the Eagles’ “home-field advantage” at Lincoln Financial Field?
Answer: it tends to suggest the “advantage” kinda doesn’t exist…
Eagles are a combined 28-21 at the Linc since 2005… One of the lowest winning percentages at home among the “perennial playoff teams” in the league…
I’m not sure what the deal is here… are the concession stands selling more chardonay than beer? Are Eagles’ fans becoming too politically correct, ordering bris and crackers instead of pretzels with mustard?
I’m vexed…
Somehow the Linc made it into the “Top 10” of ESPN’s recent “NFL’s Toughest Venues” poll…
But just barely.
Are we as fans doing something wrong when we attend a home game?
ESPN has done a nice job of putting out some entertaining “Top 10 Polls” to help fill the vacuum of the NFL lockout this summer. Last week they put out their poll results of “The NFL’s Toughest (read ‘loudest’) Venues”…
- Lambeau Field (Packers)
- Heinz Field (Steelers)
- Qwest Field (Seahawks)
- Arrowhead Stadium (Chiefs)
- Soldier Field (Bears)
- Superdome (Saints)
- Gillette Stadium (Patriots)
- Metrodome (Vikings)
- Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles)
- Oakland Coliseum (Raiders
Okay, you think, nice, we’re tied for number 10 with Oakland. But where is the correlation with wins and losses?
Fact is, about 80 miles south down the road, there’s an NFL franchise that didn’t make the “Top 10” ahead of us… but somehow, since 2000, the Baltimore Ravens have the third-best home record in the NFL at 65-23. Under Head Coach John Harbaugh, the Ravens are 19-5 at M&T Bank Stadium, including 7-1 last season. They call it the “Purple Wall of Sound” down there…
Only the New England Patriots (69-19) and Indianapolis Colts (66-22) have better records in front of their fans since 2000….but the Pats’ Gillette Stadium was only No. 7 and the Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium was No. 11 in the ESPN poll…
Jeez, we the Eagles were a lousy 4-5 at the Linc last season… so what are these other clubs with better home records doing at their home games that we’re not?
Probably, we’re not generating enough crowd noise on defensive series… most of our crowd noise is like a controlled buzz that rises and falls with offensive series of plays… I blame the chardonay.
It was different at the Vet. The “Dee-Fense” got most of the noise…
One of the lacking “intimidation factors” at the Linc is explained by the genuine class of the owners of the team, Jeff and Christina Lurie. They have simply been reluctant to submit to the Roman “bread and circus” atmosphere of controlled crowd noise so prevalent in the NFL.
The Luries adhere to the NFL guidelines of “crowd noise”… while other teams push the limit at home games.
Have you ever seen the “rules”? They actually exist. Here’s a few NFL-approved guidelines for minimizing home-field advantage:
Crowd Noise
While the League does not wish to place restrictions on spontaneous crowd noise or to diminish fan enjoyment in our sport, it is each club’s responsibility to exert proper control over cheerleaders and mascots (including noise-making specialists hired exclusively for that purpose), use of scoreboards, message boards, etc. Artificial or manufactured crowd noise in NFL stadiums has increased to the extent that teams have notified the league office that they have experienced difficulty communicating within their bench area as well as on the field.
(1) Club-Controlled Sound: The home club does not have the perogative to decide if such sound hampers signal calling. While spontaneous crowd noises may be beyond immediate control, noise of any kind (music, horns, gongs, drums, etc.) that is under club control must cease when the play clock (40 or 25 second) is running and the visiting team is in possession of the ball. Flagrant attempts by cheerleaders, mascots or the public-address system to encourage crowd noise for the purpose of disrupting the visiting team’s offense while the play clock is running is prohibited. The use of noise meters or such messages as “Noise!,” “Let’s hear it!,” “Raise the Roof,” “Let’s go Crazy,” “Pump it up,” and “12th Man” are prohibited at any time during the game. These examples are not limited to the foregoing, but also would include similar messages that encourage crowds to make random noise in order to disrupt the opposition. The prohibitions specified in this section also apply during kicking plays.
Exception: Any conventional cheerleader or mascot actions, or the use of the scoreboard or message board, for acceptable cheers such as “Defense!” and “Push ’em back!” must be stopped when the huddle breaks and/or the offensive team moves to the line of scrimmage.
(2) “Wave”: Club-controlled efforts to start the “Wave” cheer, through the use of cheerleaders or message boards — even if the actions are stopped when the visiting team breaks the huddle — are a violation of the crowd noise policy.
(3) Noise-Making Devices: Klaxons, megaphones, bullhorns, whistles and other noisemakers of any kind are not permitted in stadium.
(4) Field-Level Speakers: The number of field-level speakers must be limited to a maximum of four. They must be placed between the goal lines and the 20-yard lines, and be pointed away from the bench area and the playing field. All sound from such speakers must cease when play clock starts for the visiting team’s possession.
(5) Mascots: Team mascots must stay behind the six-foot white border at all times during the game (they may be on the field at appropriate times during the pregame and at halftime when players are not on the field), and they are prohibited from engaging in any acts of taunting opposing players, coaches, and game officials. In the event of violations, teams employing the mascots will be subject to significant fines.
(6) Videos: Video clips may be shown during pregame, halftime, postgame, between quarters, and after a score by the home team, as long as the content is in good taste and not derogatory to the visiting team. At no time may such clips be shown while the play clock or game clock is running.
Clubs should be aware of the playing rule adopted in 1989 which establishes a set of procedures, including loss of timeouts or 5-yard penalty on the defense, to handle the problem of crowd noise which prevents the offense from hearing its signals.
Man, that’s a lot of rules telling me my home-field advantage just shrunk to bocephus….
But improving on a 4-5 home record (counting the Green Bay playoff game) last year? What do we have to lose by kicking out the jams of the NFL approved standards of stadium sound? Either we need a rowdier set of home-game ticket holders…or we need to push the envelope on breaking a few of the NFL standards of “Crowd Noise” at the Linc…
Somehow, the message must get out to the aristocrats who currently hold season-tickets at the Linc… The Eagles need noisy fans on defensive series… this is not a request, it is a requirement. Give us back our home-field advantage…and stop acting like dilettantes.
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