NFL gave Chargers a massive advantage over the Patriots that no one is talking about

The Los Angeles Chargers are preparing to travel east for their wildcard matchup against the New England Patriots. The Patriots' home of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and their home crowd are a distinct January advantage for the Patriots.

The NFL schedule for wild-card weekend was released shortly before the conclusion of last Sunday night's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens. Upon the release the Chargers against the Patriots was surprisingly given the Sunday night primetime slot.

The Sunday Night Football time slot on the surface seems like a great way to highlight a potentially great AFC matchup and more specifically to highlight the quarterback matchup between Drake Maye and Justin Herbert. The matchup does give the Chargers a hidden advantage that appears no one else is talking about, the time slot is more beneficial for the Chargers

Why the late window time slot favors the Chargers

The Chargers are undefeated during the 2025 regular season in primetime games, going 5-0. Significant chatter can be found on social media about both teams, their respective quarterbacks, and their performances in primetime.

The primetime aspect of the game is not the hidden factor, the kickoff time is. The Chargers and Patriots will kick off at 8 p.m. local time in the Eastern time zone.

An article published in Psychology Today over a decade ago unlocks the advantage for the West Coast team heading East to play in the late window. The article references a scientific analysis of performances of NFL games for over 40 years and the findings revealed "West Coast teams appear to have a distinct advantage over their East Coast competitors when competing in games that start after 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time."

There is a prevailing thought that West Coast teams struggle when travelling East. The analysis does support that thought in general, during the day. The analysis came to the conclusion that "there was no advantage for West Coast teams over East Coast teams in games played during eastern standard daytime hours."

Performance timing explained

Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen — Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The discussion over an advantage that West Coast teams may have over East Coast teams simply comes down to the timing of the game. The Chargers, who will be travelling to Foxborough Friday night, will biologically still be on a Pacific time zone circadian rhythm.

The Psychology Today article cites a sports medicine peer-reviewed study that explains the advantage.

The majority of components of sports performance, e.g. flexibility, muscle strength, short term high power output, vary with time of day in a sinusoidal manner and peak in the early evening close to the daily maximum in body temperature.

This means the Chargers, still on West coast time, will be athletically peaking at kickoff. In contrast the Patriots will be kicking off at 8pm and will be beyond their peak window.

The results of the advantage

The article discussed uses sports betting spreads to quantify the results. The data that for games kicking off at 8 p.m. Eastern featuring a home East Coast team facing a visiting West Coast team, the West Coast team beat the point spread two times as often as the East Coast team. Furthermore, the West coast teams that beat the point spread did so by 5.26 points.

The Patriots are currently only 3.5 point favorites over the visiting Chargers.

The game still needs to be played and anything can happen in the NFL, but this simple advantage goes to the Chargers. The results will show if the Chargers can capitalize on this small added advantage.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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