Turn on any sports channel and you can hear about how the Giants defeated the mighty Packers on Sunday. The Packers were out of rhythm. They turned it over a lot, dropped passes and even Rodgers missed some open receivers. Obviously this came because they didn't have to play last week.
Look I even found an article that points this out.
Not to pick on this random blog too much, just the first hit I found.
Perhaps to be a contrarian, I'll point out all 3 other home teams won. The Pats crushed Denver. Granted they are a much better team, but even throwing that out.
I found this article detailing how the Ravens relished a week of rest to come in fresh to beat the Texans.
And also this article with similar thoughts on the 49er's bye week. In fact the 49er's won as home underdogs to a team who many thought was the NFC favorite and had the wonderful momentum of playing the week before.
It's a convenient crutch for mainsteam media. If a favored team loses, blame it on the bye week. If they win, pretend it didn't happen. This irritates me more as a Colts fan because I've had to hear for years about how the Colts byes always hurt them. Some years they lost as a top seed due to flaws or dumb luck well beyond this. Also they flat out quite trying in '09. Having a bye week didn't prevent them from crushing the Ravens and Jets on their way to the Super Bowl against another team that faltered and rested down the stretch.
Sometimes good teams lose and sometimes it's to teams that aren't as good as them. It happens just about every week which is why FO has a weekly Any Given Sunday article. It happens in the conference championship rounds when neither team has a bye the week before. Ask the '10 Saints or this year's Steelers how they enjoyed playing in the 1st round as heavy favorites to keep up their momentum. Having a bye is HUGE advantage. There was absolutely no way the 49er's were not going to advance to the divisional round this year. They had a 100% chance of making it. The Saints were maybe 65% or so.
Giving no weight to HFA or any other factors a team with a true talent level of winning of 50% and a bye will make the Super Bowl more often than a team with a 60% level that plays in the first round. Everyone in the playoffs (Denver excluded) is generally good. I'd sure rather have the sure thing advancement no matter how it hurts my momentum.
There are many memes football anouncers push. This is absolutely one that needs to stop. I now look forward to the Giants running the table the rest of the way to provide one data point for a counter argument. Lesson: Humanity is dumb.
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