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Home cooking leaves teams burned

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 26, 2000

Home may be where the heart is, but it wasn't where you found victory Sunday for NFL teams. Call it home-field disadvantage.

Teams playing at home went 3-10, a winning percentage of .231. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time home teams had such a bad percentage was Oct. 23, 1983.

The statistic easily could have been better if not for some late-game heroics. Four losses occurred after the home team was tied or had the lead in the fourth quarter. Denver, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh and Chicago gave up late leads, with the Broncos, Bucs and Steelers allowing winning scores with less than 2:30 remaining.

Miami, one of the teams to win at home, had to stave off a last-second comeback by New England to avoid being the 11th victim. Only Baltimore, 37-0 over the Bengals,and Oakland, 36-10 over Cleveland, won in convincing fashion at home.

Maybe you could argue the league's weaker teams were home. Chicago, New Orleans, Arizona and San Diego fit that bill, but of those four, only the Chargers were not favored.

The lack of home cooking may not be a fluke. Visiting teams were 29-28 going into Monday night's game. Last season, the visitors won 39.5 percent of their games.

DALLAS DISRESPECTED: Of all the home losses, the most inexplicable had to be the Cowboys' against the previous winless 49ers. In the past two seasons, Dallas had gone 13-3 at Texas Stadium.

Now the Cowboys have opened 0-2 at home, giving up 41 points to the Eagles and 49ers, who have a combined three wins. The common denominator is that Troy Aikman started at quarterback.

The Niners allowed an average of 335 passing yards against Atlanta's Chris Chandler, Carolina's Steve Beuerlein and St. Louis' Kurt Warner. Aikman managed 197 yards on 15-for-26 passing. He had an interception and a fumble.

With backup Randall Cunningham having guided the Cowboys to their two most productive offensive displays, including a 27-21 victory over the Redskins, the clamor to bench Aikman may rise even though he was a guiding force for Dallas during its heyday in the '90s.

Owner Jerry Jones has made it clear, however, Aikman will start as long as he's healthy.

"What I saw from Troy today was not as negative as that score," Jones said. "I'm more concerned right now about our overall play than I am about Troy Aikman's play."

CARBON COPY: The category is NFL and the answer is: This team has one of the league's best defenses and Bert Emanuel as one of its featured receivers, but it often has to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat because its offense is so inept.

You may think the question is, Who are the '99 Bucs? But it's actually, Who are the 2000 Dolphins? Miami appears to be duplicating the ups and downs the Bucs went through last season. Inexperienced quarterback Jay Fiedler connected with Emanuel for a 53-yard score Sunday, but he threw two interceptions, and Emanuel lost a fumble.

But the defense is the first since the 1937 Chicago Bears to allow one or fewer touchdowns over the first four games. Not since the 1977 Atlanta Falcons has a team yielded as few as 22 points over that span. The Falcons gave up 19.

"It's going to change week to week, but the minute a player or a coach says, "We're carrying the load or we're doing this and you aren't doing it,' it turns on you," Miami coach Dave Wannstedt said. "Our defensive group has been together for a couple of years. That's where the least amount of changes have been, that's where the least amount of injuries have been.

"We're still trying to catch up on offense."

SEEING RED: The Chiefs wore red pants for the first time since 1989, and Kansas City's victory over Denver was not the only reason 315-pound center Tim Grunhard is all for wearing them again.

"It makes me look slimmer, so I like that," Grunhard said.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Bucs at Redskins -- It's actually a pretty good week with the Giants at Tennessee, the Vikings at the Lions and Seattle at Kansas City.

But Bucs-Redskins was pegged in the preseason as a potential NFC championship preview. Quite a rivalry has developed. In 1998, the Redskins came from behind to spoil the Bucs' playoff hopes in a Week 16 thriller aptly known as the Impeachment Game. Tampa Bay returned the favor last season by knocking Washington out of the playoffs.

With the Redskins off to a slow start and Tampa Bay suffering an embarrassing loss to the Jets, this one has an added layer of intrigue.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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