Patriots Looking For Schedule Advantage vs Cardinals, 49ers

Part of the homefield advantage for the Arizona Cardinals playing at State Farm Stadium against east coast teams is the time difference.

While not getting too deep into the studies of the math and science of the different things/feelings players can experience traveling from one coast to the next, anything that can throw a professional athlete off their normal routine could and should be used as an advantage.

With two west coast games against the Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, the New England Patriots are requesting those matchups to be consecutive according to ESPN's Mike Reiss:

"It is already determined who the Patriots will play in 2024, so the league's schedule release -- which is expected to come as early as this week -- locks in the when. Teams can request consideration from the league in certain areas, and I'm told the Patriots asked for the possibility of pairing up their games at San Francisco and Arizona, which would potentially allow them to spend the week out west. No guarantee the league grants it, however."

Would this be a major advantage for New England?

"In our database, teams from the Eastern Time Zone have gone 84-88 ATS (48.8%) when playing in the Pacific Time Zone, 51-47 ATS (52.0%) in the Mountain Time Zone and 250-230 ATS (52.1%) in the Central Time Zone," wrote Sports Insights.

"In prime time games, East Coast teams have gone just 10-15 ATS (40.0%) when playing in the Pacific Time Zone. It’s also worth noting that East Coast teams have gone just 3-11 ATS (21.4%) when playing on short rest."

West coast teams have won just 35.5% of the time when traveling back east.

There's whispers the league schedule could emerge later this week, and like Reiss already stated, we already know who plays who - it's just a matter of when.

Outside of their NFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Chargers are the lone team on the west coast who will travel to Arizona this season.

The Cardinals themselves have the potential to take a lengthy road trip, as the Carolina Panthers are playing a game in Germany and could host Arizona there - we won't know until the schedule comes out.