FOXBORO, Mass. — Home-field advantage makes communication easy for the offense. That’s not the case for the defense, however.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady went over the advantages of having home-field advantage in the playoffs. The Patriots will be playing at Gillette Stadium for at least one game this postseason as the AFC’s No. 2 seed. Brady detailed how improved communication can make or break a game.
“Well, we have great fans that come out and let it rip. So, I think they are always into the game,” Brady said on Wednesday. “The communication at home is really important for an offense. The communication on our offense — there’s a lot of it. So, the better we can communicate, the more we’re on the same page. Typically, the less chance there is to make a mistake, because you can just communicate pretty easily. If I want a receiver to do anything, I just yell out there and tell him. When you’re on the road, there’s different non-verbal communication that you try to use. If you don’t get it right on one play, that one play could be the difference in the game. There’s a little margin of error you get at home with your communication because it’s just pretty easy to communicate as an offense.”
Home-field advantage might make communication easy for an offense, but for a defense, it has the opposite approach. The crowd roars while the opposing offense is on the field. That can make things tricky for the home defense.
“It’s equally as difficult for a defense, though,” Brady said. “It’s a home game for our offense, but for our defense, they get crowd noise and they have to communicate.”
The Patriots are 8-0 at home this season and 4-4 on the road, so something must be working for them inside the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium.
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