Hello Clem...
First of all, I do enjoy your thoughtful analysis and think you do a nice job, however, I have to disagree with your above assessment that Palmer would have made all the difference due to the fact that Pittsburgh had posted a record of 3-1 straight up and ATS versus Palmer in the four previous meetings leading up to this playoff game.
With regard to this being Pittsburgh's 4th road game in five weeks, that is a true statement however you failed to note that last weeks game at Cincy was only 289 miles from downtown Pittsburgh and that Pittsburgh played at home the week prior and the game prior to that was at Cleveland which is only a 2.5 hour car ride from Pittsburgh...thus I think we can discount the road thing in Pittsburgh's case.
You should however be concerned with Carolina who is playing on the road for the 3rd straight week and are also on the road for the 4th time in a 5 week span, the same holds true with Washington who is playing on the road for the 3rd straight and is making a journey from one shore to another.
Historically speaking, there have been 29 playoff teams since 1984 that played on the road for 3 straight weeks, these teams lost 26 of those 29 games in straight up fashion and posted a record of 7-22 ATS in those games.
Just some food for thought, take care and be well my friend...
Jim
