NFL Divisional Round: Halfway Through, Home-Field Adavantage in Jeopardy

The Baltimore Ravens and the Arizona Cardinals both proved a very important point in their playoff victories Saturday. The "12th man" is only as good as the 11 actual players who suit up and play the game each weekend. By virtue of their regular-season success, both the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers earned a bye week in the playoffs, going 13-3 and 12-4 respectively to earn the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in their divisions. Tennessee was nearly perfect at home, with a 7-1 record, while Carolina was the only team in the NFL this year to go undefeated in front of the home-town crowd. Both Carolina and Tennessee enjoy an active fan base that shows up for the game ready to "raise the roof" and overwhelm the opposing team's offensive efforts. On Saturday, though, that didn't matter. Tennessee lost 13-10 in a slugfest with Baltimore in the early game, while the Cardinals took the Panthers to task with a phenomenal 33-13 beating in prime time. There was one common factor that has been ... (link)