Beastmode

Scott from San Diego asked during the most recent chat what would stop the San Francisco 49ers or any team home for the playoffs from watering or drying out the playing surface to suit their style of play.

I didn't get to this question during the chat because I didn't have an air-tight answer. But according to NFL officials, the league sends a representative from its football operations department to each stadium. The official visits the stadium the day before the game to review field-maintenance plans with the team.

We should not expect to see the rogue sprinkler operator from those restaurant commercials, in other words.

SmashMouth

Good to hear .... TwoDat!

saintfan

The day before the game is too late. Somebody should be with that Grounds Crew all week IMO.

Beastmode

They review the maint plan. Nothing more. If a team wanted to tamper with it your right, nothing is going to stop them. We'll know by halftime though, its been dry as a bone there all week and the tide forecast is low.

DrewDat

I thought that was the problem in Green Bay first game of the season....our players kept slipping on the field and the Packers ran wild

homerj07

We should not expect to see the rogue sprinkler operator from those restaurant commercials, in other words.

Scared children!! trying to even a playing field they can never reach!!

AlaskaSaints

Do they inspect the power grid for night games?

It is still possible they were icing Big Ben. He had an injection that would only last 3 hours and they inadvertently added an hour to that with a power outage. An UNHEARD-OF power outage.

I would put nothing past a football program to pull some crazy shat over a crucial win or loss.

That Packers slip-and-slide was REAL. Even the announcers called it.

Total B.S.

Alaska

thebdj

Dont you think we are all getting caught up in all this rubbish about being away from home, being outside, checking the weather, checking the moon, seeing if the stars are aligned...

As Public Enemy famously said - Don't Believe the Hype!

To win the Superbowl you have to be good enough to win home and away, inside and outside and beat a variety of teams. The way the Saints are playing, conducting themselves and how things appear in preparation, they have a really REALLY good shot at going all the way.

Let's not get drawn into these conversations. If we make it an issue, it becomes an issue.

WHO DAT!

Rickh

That's what gets me, I've heard a ton of people talk about the Saints record outside. BUT NOT WHY!!

There really isn't any logic in it just "they don't play good outside". This is a bunch of crap.

How about this instead, because of the O-Line problems early in the season, the Saints offense had trouble with protections and run blocking. They got that straitened out after the Rams games and haven't looked back.

and put that together with:
Since the Rams game, the Saints only played three games away from the dome. ATL, TEN, and MIN. All victories.

The away stats everybody is talking about are heavily weighted to the early part of the schedule that was before we got some of those issues addressed.

There's no voodoo here it was just a fluke of the schedule of when our home games were vs. away.

SaintsBro

The slip-and-slide effect on the field (much like we saw in Green Bay) is NOT just from sprinklers or water. It can be caused by re-sodding or putting down new grass, on part or all of the field, and not leaving enough time for the grass to grow proper roots and dig in.

It's basically a lot like those rolls or carpet chunks of grass that you see at Home Depot. You put pressure on them, or stress, and the grass easily rips and falls apart, exposing the dirt or sod beneath. Also, the water from sprinklers can become trapped underneath the layer of grass, and when the grass rips or tears, because it doesn't have any roots, the water or mud hidden underneath the field comes up. So it can be dry as a bone weather-wise, and no rain for two weeks, the grass can be dry on top, and still be soggy and mud-like underneath, once the grass gets ripped or starts to come up. I guarantee you the field at Candlestick will look green and pretty at the start of the game, but it will become a sloppy, sloggy, disgusting mess by the 2nd or 3rd quarter. They have to slow the Saints down. They WILL do this.