Bucs' Bruce Arians: 'Home-field advantage in the playoffs is a huge, huge advantage'

Last January, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won three consecutive road games en route to their Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. The defending champions improved to 8-3 on the current season via Sunday's 38-31 win at the Indianapolis Colts, and Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians spoke with reporters Monday about the importance of his team hosting postseason matchups this time around. 

"It’s back like the old days. It has only ever happened a couple of times in the history of the league [where teams advance to the Super Bowl while playing every playoff game on the road]," Arians remarked, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "When I was in Pittsburgh, we went to the Super Bowl and won with all the road games. I think the Giants may have done it, but that’s not very easy. It’s a very hard thing with fans. People forget — everybody talks about our road woes — we’re .500 on the road right now and that’s pretty damn good in the old days. When there are fans in the stands and you go and win in a place like Philly and you go win in a place like Indy, those are hard stadiums to win in. Home-field advantage in the playoffs is a huge, huge advantage." 

Thus far this season, the Buccaneers have lost games at the Los Angeles Rams, at the New Orleans Saints and at the Washington Football Team while keeping an undefeated record in contests played at Raymond James Stadium. Quarterback Tom Brady and company proved earlier this year they can be postseason road warriors, but Arians made it clear Monday he is pursuing more than a mere return to the playoffs ahead of the campaign's final six games.  

As things stand today, the Buccaneers would be the No. 3 seed in the NFC postseason tournament.