Seahawks’ home-field advantage stands out even more than usual this season

SEATTLE – For the Seahawks, home has always been where the hope is.

The Seahawks’ success since moving into CenturyLink Field in 2002 has been well documented – Seattle is 85-34 at home in that span, the best record in the NFL.

True, everybody tends to be better at home. Consider that just seven NFL teams this season have won more games on the road than at home.

But from the Seahawks’ earliest days, their advantage at home has always been pretty pronounced – only three times in Seahawks history have they won more games on the road than at home (1980, 1989 and 2001).

Which brings us to Saturday, when the Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals at 1:25 p.m. with a chance to clinch what would be just the fourth undefeated home season in team history, all of which have come since Seattle moved into CenturyLink Field: 2003, 2005 and 2012 are the others.

The Seahawks could also clinch the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs with a win against Arizona combined with losses by Atlanta against Carolina Saturday and then Detroit at Dallas on Monday night.

That trio of events would assure Seattle a bye in the wild-card round and then needing to win only a divisional playoff game at home to advance to the NFC Championship Game.

And if being 8-0 at CenturyLink Field for the season wouldn’t speak loudly enough about what the home-field advantage could mean for the Seahawks in the playoffs, a further look into some numbers makes it even more clear.

While Seattle has outscored its seven home foes 196-102, Seattle has been outscored on the road 133-102.

Also consider that Seattle has scored 11 rushing touchdowns at home but just one on the road (that by the now-departed Christine Michael at New Orleans) and has a 99.9 passer rating at CenturyLink compared to 78.6 on the road.

The defense has also appeared much more vulnerable on the road, where the Seahawks are giving up 7.4 yards per pass attempt compared to just 5.4 at home.

True, the home/road stats – especially on defense – could be viewed as skewed some by the opponents. Seattle has faced Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and a suddenly surging Jameis Winston on the road since mid-October.

And maybe it’s simply facing some of the better and hotter teams on the road than at home that helps to explain how much different the Seahawks have looked this year inside and outside of Seattle. The combined record of Seattle’s home opponents this year is 38-60 compared to the 50-47-1 tally of its road foes.

Still, in a year when Seattle has faced its share of unexpected hurdles (such as the trio of injuries to quarterback Russell Wilson) the Seahawks have seemed to depend more than ever on the comforts of home.

Certainly more so than the past three seasons, when Seattle’s home and road performance didn’t vary as widely as it has this season. The Seahawks were a combined 20-4 at home the past three years and 15-9 on the road.

This year, after the Seahawks suffered what was their first loss in more than five years in which they were not within one score in the fourth quarter (at Tampa Bay), they came home to blow out Carolina the next week. They then rebounded from their worst loss since 2010 (at Green Bay) to come home and beat the Rams by three touchdowns.

Should Seattle beat Arizona, it would also mark one of four times in team history when it won four or more games at home than it did on the road.

“It’s important,’’ coach Pete Carroll said this week of going undefeated at home and taking a step toward securing being at home through at least the divisional playoff game. “In championship years, you really need to play great at home, and we try to dominate at home. I’d like to get that done so we know next time we come back it’s playoff time and we will have something intact that we’ll be very proud of and something to play off and play for.’’

Which even with the NFC West title already in hand, remains plenty to play for now as well.