Are Eagles Fans Actually Hurting the Team?

Before Sunday’s stinkfest against the Cowboys, the Wall Street Journal made this observation about the Eagles: “For one NFL team, playing at home is actually a disadvantage. The Philadelphia Eagles are the only team to have a better winning percentage on the road (.560) than at home (.541), since 2004. Over that same span, the rest of the league has a combined home regular-season winning percentage of .570 and .421 for away games.”

Now why would that be?

A friend posits that it comes down to architecture: Seattle’s “12th man” advantage comes from how its field is designed—basically, to hold in the sound mad by the crowd trying to drown out the other team’s offensive playcalling. The Linc doesn’t have that kind of natural amplification, he says.

But it’s also true that every Sunday in this town features, on Twitter, an orgy of anger, despair, and calls for the starting quarterback to be replaced. And that’s on the weeks the Eagles are winning. The anguish an panic are hot, fast and un-ending, coming from casual fans as well as closer observers of the team. And that’s just in cyberspace. Often, in weeks where the team ends up winning! If fans in the stadium are that quick to get angry and panicky, well, gosh, no wonder the team feels more comfortable on the road.

Discussion?