Billy Davis: Noise, Not Cold, Affects Saints Offense
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Saints have never won a playoff game on the road. The "dome team on the road" narrative is a popular one, especially late in the season and the playoffs, when temperatures are dropping.
Weather forecasters are predicting game time temperatures around 20 degrees for the Eagles Saturday night playoff game against the Saints.
While Eagles defensive coordinator Billy Davis thinks they've got an advantage playing at home, he doesn't think it's the cold that is the reason.
"On the road, your numbers are accurate, but I don't think it has to do with the elements. I think it has to do with the crowd noise and the noise because they are a dome signal operation," Davis told Howard Eskin and Marc Farzetta on the 94WIP Morning Show on Thursday. "They are very verbal in how they communicate their personnel groupings and a lot of things they do. So the louder the crowd noise, that has been in the Seattle game, the Panther game, I see that as probably having more of an effect on how they operate as an offense than the actual weather does. So our crowd this weekend is going to play a big part when the [New Orleans] offense is on the field and really the louder we can be, I think that has just as much an effect on them than any of the weather. That might be the road issues they are having."
The Saints offense averages 16 fewer points on the road than they do at home this season.
"The thing I learned about the cold, or the extreme heat, or even the altitude in Denver is, the team that thinks about it the least amount of time during the course of a game and thinks more about the football aspect. Their technique, their linemen, their keys, is the team that usually deals with the cold better," Davis said. "I don't think there is advantage. I think the Saints are going to come in here and they are going to be one hundred percent. They don't care if it's two degree or two hundred degrees, they're going to be playing to win and it's playoff football and it's everything they've got and there will be no excuses. I think we're going to get their best."
