Is Julian Edelman's shout-out to Patriots fans more right than he realizes?

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Julian Edelman simply was acknowledging New England Patriots fans Tuesday when he logged onto Instagram.

"Home field advantage means something more at Gillette," Edelman wrote in a post Tuesday morning. "Thank you for being the best fans in the league. #OnToKC"

The Patriots played their last home game of the season last Sunday in an AFC Divisional Round win over the Los Angeles Chargers -- they'll travel to Kansas City this weekend for the AFC Championship Game -- so this was a good time to shout out the denizens of Gillette Stadium.

Also: Edelman may be more right than he realizes about that home field advantage bit.

Never mind that New England is 9-0 at home this season and was the only team in the NFL to go 8-0 at home during the regular season. And never mind that the Patriots had a +15.9 point differential at home this season, better than every team in the league. (The Chiefs were second with a +14.8 point differential.)

The best way to see how much home-field mattered to the Patriots is to look at how poorly they played outside Foxboro.

New England went 3-5 away from home this season and based on a few key metrics was one of the league's worst road teams. Despite finishing tied for the league's sixth-best record, the Patriots actually have been outscored on the road this season and rank 26th or lower in net yards per play, offensive red zone touchdown percentage and opponents' third down conversion percentage.

Simply put: No team benefited more from home field advantage this season than the Patriots.

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They'll have to shake those bad habits and recent history Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, as road teams have lost the last 10 conference championship games dating to 2012. 

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