Vahe Gregorian: NFL’s Thursday night games put teams off kilter

When the Chiefs fended off reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle to win a particularly bruising game 24-20 last November, they had won their fifth game in a row to improve to 7-3.

Up next was a trip to Oakland, an 0-10 fiasco of a team that loomed as a pylon for the Chiefs as they enhanced their inevitable playoff resume.

Instead, the Raiders seized a 14-0 lead and a 24-20 victory that triggered a three-game Kansas City losing streak that became the pivot point in their failure to reach the playoffs.

Now the Chiefs might have bungled that game even if it were played on the customary day of NFL worship with its “any given Sunday” qualifier.

But it was played on a Thursday night, a variable that warps everything for both teams but particularly the one traveling as Denver is on Wednesday to play the Chiefs in their home opener at Arrowhead Stadium on this given Thursday.

In theory, that twist ought to augment the Chiefs’ advantage at Arrowhead, the reigning record-holder for loudest crowd roar at an outdoor sports stadium (142.2 decibels).

Certainly the Chiefs could use a boost against Denver which has beaten them six times in a row and maybe even a little extra surge at Arrowhead, where they are just 39-41 the last 10 years but 6-2 in 2014.

The truth is, though, that all you can really know is that everything is off-kilter for both teams and that, one way or another, it’s not the same game you’d see on Sunday.

For the last quarter century or so, the home team in the NFL wins roughly 57 or 58 percent of the time.

Since Thursday night football became a weekly season-long deal in 2012, excluding the opening games not subject to a short week, the home team has won ... 55.8 percent of the time (24-19).

You could break this all down in many more sophisticated ways, but ultimately the takeaway is that, as usual, nothing is a given ... only more so than usual.

The shortened week may seem like a trivial hiccup to those accustomed to flux in their daily lives and schedules like, say, most of us who aren’t NFL coaches.

But they are control freaks of the most exaggerated nature, creatures of routine apt to balk at the slightest whiff of a deviation in their regimens.

So what they can control is diminished by an intolerable factor that includes specific game preparation and knowledge of the opponent, especially this early in the season.

The greatest issue, though, is the recovery factor for players, who even without suffering what would be categorized as an injury typically need 48 to 72 hours just to return to normal after inflicting and absorbing the violence of a game.

“Go get in a car accident and then try to play two days later. That’s how it feels,” then-Seattle fullback Michael Robinson told The Associated Press in 2012 after the Seahawks became the fifth road team in six games to lose a Thursday night game.

More subtly, Chiefs receiver Jeremy Maclin said Tuesday, “It’s hard to get your body right.”

Which is why they shouldn’t even be playing these Thursday night games at least not without each team coming off a bye week.

But part of the NFL’s plan for global domination means taking advantage of every possible revenue stream, which in this case means a third day each week of owning TV ratings.

So it’s game on and the spoils to whichever team can best manage this disturbance in the force.

“All mental,” Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said, noting the de-emphasis on any contact drills this week.

But regardless of the fact that the Chiefs had to fly home Sunday evening while the Broncos played Baltimore at home that day, you’d rather be the Chiefs just now than the Broncos.

At least in terms of sheer time and disruption factors, the Broncos are more crunched as they fly into Kansas City on Wednesday.

“Usually, it’s nicer to be the home team (for Thursday games),” quarterback Alex Smith said, smiling. “It’s one less thing to deal with.

“You do have a little more time, obviously, on a short week you hope you can take advantage of.”

That starts with just getting from one place to the other and all that goes with it.

“You can’t underestimate what goes into traveling,” said Chiefs guard Ben Grubbs, including everything from dehydration to sheer time consumed to being on your feet moving.

Of course, you also can’t really estimate what goes into this Thursday night dynamic other than that everything is askew for those playing.

You just know that the team that manages the relative chaos best will have the best chance to win any given Thursday.

“Try to cram it all in,” Smith said, “make the most of the time you do have.”

It’s something the Chiefs know too well from the game that altered the complexion of their 2014 season and as they prepare for a game they hope is a springboard in this one.

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