West Coast vs. East Coast at 1PM Start

Much has been made of the current streak of West Coast teams losing when playing on the East Coast in the 1PM time slot. So....you might ask "how does this trend extend beyond this 2008 season"? Pat Kirwan has good article on this at the following link: http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80b6ab85&template=with-video&confirm=true

In part it reads:

Since 2003, when the Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks travel to the Eastern time zone for a 1 p.m. game, they have a combined record of 19-59 -- a winning percentage of .243. When you look at games played at 4 p.m. or at night, the West Coast teams are 3-5 (.375 percentage). When you look at the whole picture since 2003, West Coast teams win 25.5 percent of their East Coast games.

Some of these West Coast teams have struggled in recent years, so let's take a specific look at the Seahawks, who have been in the playoffs every year since 2003. Seattle's west-to-east record is 6-12 in that time. The Raiders have been on hard times lately, but back in 2000-02 -- when they went 33-15 and made the playoffs all three years -- their west-to-east record was 2-3.

Coaches I spoke to that have coached in this situation all felt it is a real issue, even though it's hard to put a finger on why it happens. They all mentioned a "sluggish" feeling, especially early in games. Anyone can dig up a game like Seattle's 42-0 win at Philadelphia in 2005 and say it's all hogwash, but the numbers over time suggest something different. Maybe it's time to figure out how to at least schedule these games in the later time slot.

This begs the question: How do East Coast teams do when traveling to the West Coast over the same time period, regardless of start time? If they perform considerably better than 25% winning percentage, then the league might have a problem. I don't have the time, energy, or desire to research this myself, but I guarantee you that NFL teams and sports books all over the country are looking into this right now.