The Arizona Cardinals will play their only prime-time game of the season Thursday night against the San Francisco 49ers. While they are big underdogs at home against the unbeaten Niners, they have been pretty good over the last decade in prime-time games.
Fitrated.com looked at the data over the last decade and compared NFL teams’ performance in night games compared with day games.
The Cardinals have performed well in such games.
Here are some takeaways about the Cardinals:
- Overall, the Cardinals have won 51.9 percent of their prime-time games, 1.2 percent better than their daytime games and one spot ahead of the 49ers, who have a 51.4-percent winning percentage.
- The Cards have won 41.2 percent of their home prime-time games, a decrease of 23.6 percent compared to their home percentage during the day. They have won a league-best 66.7 percent of their away prime-time games, an increase over their daytime road winning percentage of 29.3 percent.
- The 49ers have a 49.2% winning percentage in away prime-time games.
- The Cards rank 29th in home attendance in prime time, with an average crowd of 64,810 people, a slight increase of 158 more than the attendance in day games.
Some of this is natural. The Cardinals typically only have prime-time games when they are good or they play a division rival. That will affect results.
However, if we just look at data, it says the Cardinals have a better chance of winning tonight than other normal games on Sunday.
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