FanPost

Why the Atlanta game will be extra difficult.

A rarely discussed issue surrounding our difficult schedule this year is where our AWAY games are geographically, and the effect on our chances of winning these games of traveling east two time zones. Find out more below.

In recent history, the curse of traveling two time zones east has been a significant one for the Denver Broncos. In the past 13 seasons our record in the eastern time zone is noticeably poorer than our record in other away games.

Games in Eastern Time Zone

Other Away Games

19-29

30-31

.396

.492

Quick additional tidbits:

*What makes this especially unfortunate, is that over half of the league is located in the ET.

*Our record at home is .600 whether we play ET teams or teams from other time zones. In other words, when ET teams travel west to Denver, there seems to be no issue. Is it merely traveling east that is difficult or some other factor? I'm sure studies have been done on this. So to summarize, our home field advantage is the same regardless of where in the country our opponent is traveling from.

*So taking all of this into account, our schedule this year is especially brutal, since we play 5 of our 8 away games in ET. Judging by history, we should lose 3 of them. Ironically 3 of them are against top flight opponents. We've played 5 away ET teams only twice in the last 13 seasons and finished 1-4 and 2-3 those two years.

*Peyton Manning has never had to travel two time zones east to play games. Atlanta will be the first. Can he perform better than our other post-Elway QBs? If so, will it be enough?

The take home here, is that we have a really difficult schedule this year, not only because the teams we play are good teams, but because of how our schedule falls, making us play 5 of 8 games against ET teams away from Denver.

If our season goes according to history in terms of our winning percentages (since Elway) against opponents:

At home we win 60% of the time = 4.8 wins (8 games)

Away in ET we win 40% = 2 wins (5 games)

Away outside of ET we win 50% = 1.5 wins (3 games)

Historically, we'd win 8.3 games with this schedule. Here's hoping we can pick up a couple extra wins somewhere!

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.